The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Kurnool News : Bankers for ethanol output from sorghum

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool

Bankers for ethanol output from sorghum

By Our Staff Reporter

KURNOOL, DEC. 7. Bankers have evinced interest in ethanol production from sweet sorghum at a meeting here on Tuesday.

The Managing Director of Rusni Distilleries, A.R. Palani Swamy, made a presentation on the extraction of ethanol, which could be doped with petrol used in vehicles, at a NABARD meeting. He said sweet sorghum, which was developed by the ICRISAT took 90 to 120 to come to harvest.

As against the 14 per cent sucrose in sugarcane, sweet sorghum has sucrose levels up to 23 per cent.

Two crops a year

The farmer who could grow two crops a year could be assured profits of Rs. 6,500 for each crop per acre. He said the processing plant coming up near Hyderabad could enter into a buy-back agreement with farmers.

He felt Kurnool and parts of Mahabubnagar districts, which were traditional sorghum, areas had great potential for growing the crop.

Sweet sorghum consumes less water compared to sugarcane. It can also be cultivated as a rain-fed crop.

If 10 per cent blend in petrol and three per cent in diesel was allowed the demand for ethanol would be around 6,100 million litres while production in the country stood at only 3,200 litres.

At present, ethanol was produced only from bagasse, which had its limitations.

He described the sweet sorghum-based ethanol process as the technology of the future and had great scope for growth.

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