A Seminar Report On
EFFECTS OF SUGAR INDUSTRY ON ENVIRONMENT
By
PRITI ABASAHEB DHAVALE_ Seat No:301A017
T. E. CIVIL
under the guidance of
DR. S. S. SHASTRI
of
SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
Sinhgad College of Engineering,
Vadgaon (Bk.), Pune-411041
Month 2023-24
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the Seminar Report entitled
EFFECTS OF SUGAR INDUSTRY ON ENVIRONMENT
Submitted by
DHAVALE PRITI ABASAHEB
has successfully completed the Seminar Presentation under the supervision of Dr. S. S. Shastri for the partial
fulfillment of Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering) of Savitribai Phule Pune University. This work
has not been submitted elsewhere for the award of any other degree.
DR. S. S. SHASTRI DR. S. S. SHASTRI
Guide Head of Department
Name
Examiner
ABSTRACT
Sugar industry in India has imparted significant contribution in the growth of agriculture and
socio-economic status of the country. However, continuation of conventional practices owing to lack
of awareness for environmentally sustainable technologies has led to the pollution in water resources
resulting in degradation of environmental quality. Considering this, Central Pollution Control Board
of India took initiative for minimizing the pollution load in rivers by formulating a charter and
invoking environmental compensation for sugar industries. Present assessment of environment related
reforms through national policy like charter implementation and environmental compensation is one
of the primary baseline studies done so far. These reforms were implemented in 85 sugar industries
situated along the main stem of River Ganga for validation. The analysis depicted that the
implementation of charter and environmental compensation resulted in significant reduction in
freshwater consumption (56.4%), effluent generation (13.8%), and biochemical oxygen demand load
(34.6%). Thus, similar reforms may be adopted in other sugar industries as well in order to improve
the environmental quality and sustained growth of the economy.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION:
Sugar industry is an agro based industry which relies upon the production of sugarcane and sugar beet. These
industries impart significant contribution in the socio-economic development of the nations as these fulfil one of the
basic necessities of human survival. However, sugar industries are often targeted for being the polluter of
environment esp. the freshwater resources. Almost all the major divisions in sugar manufacturing plant, such as
mill house, processing plant, boilers, cooling towers etc. are responsible for waste generation. These wastes include
suspended solids, waste water having depleted oxygen content, molasses, press-mud, chemicals etc. Various
governments, regulatory authorities, and researchers across the globe are involved in finding the solution of these
environmental issues through research and effective management.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of sugar industry processes and generation of co-products.
1.1 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
1) Field level impacts:
An estimated 5-6 million hectares of cropland is lost annually due to severe soil
erosion and degradation. Soil is a living, dynamic resource, made up of different sized mineral particles
(sand, silt and clay), organic matter and a diverse community of living organisms. Different soil types
display different properties, including vulnerability to erosion, salinisation, acidity and alkalinity.
Cultivation of sugar crops can contribute to soil degradation impacting on soil quantity (by increased
rates of erosion and soil removal at harvest) and soil quality.
• Soil erosion:
Erosion is a significant issue in areas under sugar cane or beet cultivation, particularly
in tropical areas (where most cane is grown), since erosion rates in tropical agroecosystems are usually
greater than the rate of soil formation. The physical loss of soil by erosion is influenced by a range of
factors including rainfall and irrigation, wind, temperature, soil type, cultivation disturbance and
topography.
2) Farm level impacts:
The suite of micro-organisms associated with a crop is often overlooked, although it
plays such a critical role in ecosystem function, for example in the turnover of soil organic matter. Most
intensively cultivated agro-ecosystems are relatively lacking in biodiversity. With the possible exception
of birds, vertebrates present in cane fields are often regarded as pest species and subject to control, yet
many may be beneficial as natural enemies of weeds and pests. Weeds and pests may also provide
important resources for other (non-pest) wildlife which play an important role in the food chain and thus
health of the agro-ecosystem.
3) Landscape level impacts:
Impacts of sugar cultivation on downstream ecosystems: Agriculture is arguably the
predominant influence on the Earth’s land surface and undoubtedly represents the main cause of wetland
habitat loss. This occurs through the runoff of polluted effluent into water courses, due to the heavy
abstraction of freshwater resources upstream of wetlands habitats, or by altering the natural flow regime.
The impacts felt downstream are the cumulative result of a complex set of land and water use decisions
in a river basin. Within this context, cane or beet can play an important role in some sugar producing
countries.
4) On water impacts:
Waste water from sugarmills with its high Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) rapidly depletes available oxygen supply when discharged into
water bodies endangering fish's and other aquatic's life and also creates septic conditions, generating
foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide
1.2 COMPOENTS WHICH ARE HARMFUL TO ENVIRONMENT
BY SUGAR INDUSTRY
1)Air pollutant
Air pollution from sugar industry is considered to be very negligible as compared to other industry. Source
of air pollutant are during unloading sugarcane from loader in form of dust; cutting and shedding in small
fibers in form suspended particulate matter; burning of waste sugarcane bagasse inform of smoke and open
dumping of solid waste in form of smells. During all these activities a major precaution was taken. To
protect from dust at the time of loading and unloading, water spray around the area, cutting, and shedding
were completed in covered automatic equipment. In boiler house chimney high power electrostatics
precipitator was installed to reduce the suspended particulate matter (SPM), wet scrubber and adsorber are
used to reduced the sulfur dioxide (SOx) and nitrous oxide (NOx), maintain proper height of chimney to
protect from metrological effects. Open dumping of solid waste like filter cake, mud and molasses were
reprocessing and utilize in other industrial application to prevent the smell.
2) Waste Water
The sugar mill is coming under those agro-industries which requires a large quantity of fresh
water for processing and discharge half of the ratio as effluent. It required 1500–2000 L of water
to crush one tone of sugarcane and generated 1000 L of wastewater. The wastewater is generated
from different sections of the industry such as mill house, boiler blowdown, rotary filter and
condensate, leakage from pumps and pipes in the evaporators and centrifuge house, along with
periodical floor washings. They are harmless organic in nature. The sugar industry wastewater also
contains oil and grease including the thread of cane, which filter and skimming before dissolving
with other sources wastewater. Overall wastewater is subjected to the conventional treatment
process, which has screening, equalization, sedimentation, coagulation, oxidation pond and filter
in series. Wastewater treatment plant has two individual sections one is physicochemical section
and another one is biological treatment section. The water treatment plant moreover operates in a
continuous manner, so that wastewater can be treating up to acceptable norms.
3) Solid Waste
The solid waste generates from sugar industry need proper management otherwise, create an
environmental problem. Open dumping of these solid wastes responsible for unpleasant smell,
birding of mosquito and flies, photochemical smog etc.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is addressing the general concept, literature, and theories on the previous study that has a
close affiliation with this study. Those works of literature will be addressed accordingly by the
interpretation of the current study problem and objective then will be explained in a subsequent chapter.
This chapter is based on past researches, books, and journals in various parts and fields of the world.
Overall this chapter will include the general concept of sugarcane production, wastewater, the material,
and the chemical input used in the production process; also, the impacts of wastewater on the
physiochemical characteristics of water, the consequences of wastewater on the community study area
health, and the side effects of wastewater on the biodiversity (fishes). Lastly, the study will address
spatial analysis and its role in distributing the factory's wastewater.
The study topic address wastewater that is resulting from sugarcane factory and its consequences on
different environmental components, prior addressing the concept of wastewater the study should take
the gap to define the source of the problem which is Sugarcane production. It also effects on crops,land
and field.
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
The work has been initiated with the raw materials identification and collected by segregate
the waste solid materials. Separation of raw materials (non - combustible waste) are done by magnetic
separation and manual separation. Initially the hand separation is done under basic knowledge of
classification. The Magnetic separator machine HS-8474 was used in this work. This type of magnetic
separator is used for recovering steel and iron. This work was done by the magnetic drum separator and
overhead belt magnet separators. This machine separates ferrous material from non-ferrous materials.
The mixture of iron filling sand, ceramic magnets, iodine to attract ferrous particles and extract them has
output. The segregated waste ingredients were dried in natural sunlight, which are uniformly distributed
on an open paved place of about 2.8m for 24 to 48 hours.
The vehicle bringing sugar canes are received at the factory cane yard. The vehicles
carrying the sugar cane are weighed on the platform type electronic weighbridges and released for
unloading. The gross weight is recorded and printed. The cart cane is manually unloaded directly to the
cane carrier. The cane from the feeder table is then dumped to the main cane carrier, which conveys the
cane to the cane preparatory devices. The preparatory index is about 85 – 90 %.The cane is conveyed
between mills with the help of rake type mechanical conveyors. The juice is first heated to a temperature
of 700 c in a tubular type vertical heater by using heat of vapors from the third effect of quintuple effect
evaporator. A three stage boiling scheme is adopted to produce quality sugar with minimum sugar loss.
The storage capacity of these storage bins is enough to store 24 hours production. The sugar is
discharged from bins to fill 50 kg/ 100 kg bags and weighed automatically by electronic type automatic
weighting machines. The sugar bags are transported to warehouse through belt conveyors.
Chart of working process:
CHAPTER 4
CASE STUDY
REFERENCES
Environmental reforms in sugar industries of India: An appraisal
AUTHOR:
1)Prabhat Ranjan
2) Surya Singh
3) Abdul Muteen
4) Mrinal Kanti Biswas
5) Ajit Kumar Vidyarthi
