The Hindu Business Line : Ethanol from sorghum: A dream come true

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Ethanol from sorghum: A dream come true

For Dr Palani Swamy’s project, there were no takers initially

P.V. Sivakumar

Meeting all needs: A farm worker strikes a container to make sound and drive away birds at a sweet sorghum farm at the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics at Patancheru in Andhra Pradesh’s Medak district. –

K.V. Kurmanath

Hyderabad, Oct. 10When Dr A.R. Palani Swamy, an NRI engineer who came back to India from the US after retirement, wanted to set up a sweet sorghum-based ethanol plant, people scoffed at him.

The bankers would not buy his dream. The Government officials would not believe in its waste management plan. But Dr Swamy firmly stuck to his dream, though the project was delayed for months.

All he wanted was someone who could buy his ideas. He found one in Agri-Business Incubator (ABI), the technology commercialisation wing of International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), that agreed to incubate his company Rusni Distilleries.

This helped form a unique combination — the entrepreneur, mentorship, an NGO that offered extension services in the sorghum crop, and the farmer.

Cheaper model

Dr William Dar, Director-General of ICRISAT, said sorghum, a dryland crop, needed far less water than sugarcane, the water-intensive crop, making it more accessible to the poor and marginal farmers.

“The ethanol production process from sweet sorghum is eco-friendly compared to that from molasses,” Mr Belum V. S. Reddy, Principal Scientist (Breeding) at ICRISAT, who is closely associated with the programme, said.

Besides facilitating multiplication of seed material, ICRISAT organised melas to popularise the crop. The support helped secure statutory clearances as well as investments.

Advantages

Keeping in mind the unfolding demand for alternative fuels, Mr Reddy felt that the water-efficient sweet sorghum, with sugar-rich stalks, could be the best option for producing ethanol.

“Moreover, molasses-based ethanol distilleries run for only six months, while the corn-based ethanol production raised concerns globally as it may adversely impact food security,” he felt.

Water requirement for sweet sorghum is one-ninth of what is required for the sugarcane crop and half of the maize crop’s intake. It gives an yield of 3.16 kilolitres a hectare, while sugarcane gives 5.6 kilolitres and maize 3.22 kilolitres.

After developing the idea into a workable model at the incubation stage, Dr Palani Swamy set up the plant at Mohammed Shapur in Rangareddy district with an initial capacity of 40 kilolitres a day.

An engineer, Dr Swamy had his storage tanks (for fermentation) built in pits. “This will insulate the process from the outside temperature, which varies from 44 to 8 degrees through summer and winter,” he said.

Then came the crucial aspect of establishing linkages with the farmers. Aakruthi Agricultural Associates of India was been roped in to provide this vital link. “It was not easy convincing the farmers initially,” Mr G. Subba Rao, Director of AAI, confessed.

Staggered sowing

The most important aspect is the timing of the crop. “We can’t have the whole stock coming in at one time. We need to have a staggered sowing plan to ensure continuous flow of feedstock,” he said.

Reacting to concerns on food security, Dr Dar said the ethanol production from sweet sorghum would not cause any threat to food security as the technology used only the stalk. The farmers will not live in a state of uncertainty, he said. “We enter into buyback arrangements with the farmers to take the whole output (stalk).”.

Now that the combination evolved into a workable, successful model, there are a lot of people showing interest in replicating it in India and abroad.

While ICRISAT would assist in the technology part, Rusni Distilleries would help in setting up the plant and back-end operations.

Way forward

For Mr Belum Reddy, it is not just end of the story for research on sweet sorghum. Research will continue on developing varieties that would give higher sugar yield and suit different geographies.

Dr Palani Swamy believes that it makes a good business model too. “It is a sellers market,” he asserted.

The demand for ethanol would only grow, he said, pointing at moves to increase the blend to 10 per cent from the present five per cent.

Dr Palani Swamy, who found it difficult to sell his dream a few years ago, is now a much sought-after man. He is now busy helping other entrepreneurs set up similar plants.