ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL, POWER AND BIOCOMPOST IN SUGAR INDUSTRY OF KARNATAKA

Karnataka state stands 3rd position in terms of sugar production and 4th position in cultivation of sugarcane in the India. In fact, there are presently around 64 working sugar factories with annual crushing capacity of 3.29 lakh MT/day, cogeneration capacity of 1500 MW/day, alcohol production capacity of 2100 KLPD and ethanol production capacity of 1130 KLPD. In the year 2017-18, Karnataka sugar industry had crushed a total of 347.5 lakh MT of cane and produced around 36.87 Lakh MT of sugar. The sugar industry in Karnataka is able to manufacture sugar in such huge quantities due to the fact that sugarcane is abundantly available in the state. But, Karnataka encounters up and down situations of sugar production and price fluctuations after few years. However, it is realized that the importance of integrated sugar-energy complexes to counterbalance the problem of wide sugar price fluctuation in domestic market. In the present work we undertook the cost-profit analysis of production of alcohol, power and bio-compost in sugar industry of Karnataka. We found that the economic returns on capital invested on sugar mills in Karnataka would be stable, if co-products i.e. bagasse, molasses and press mud are efficiently used for production of bio-ethanol, power and bio-compost.