DCM Shriram, a diversified group which has presence in agricultural inputs, chemicals and sugar, will commission its second distillery before the coming sugar season, taking its ethanol capacity to 350 kilolitres per day (klpd), its Chairman and MD Ajay Shriram said.

“Our second distillery with 200 klpd capacity is scheduled to come up by September. With this, our total capacity will increase to 350 klpd, which is a good size. With four sugar mills in operation, we have adequate quantity of molasses for running these distilleries,” Shriram said on Thursday.

In the coming season, which commences in October, DCM also plans to divert some of the B-heavy molasses, which is currently being used for producing sugar, into ethanol production to “understand the system, the recovery rates and efficiency of the operation.”

“How much B-heavy molasses we can divert will depend on the availability of sugarcane for crushing in the next season. We expect it to be around 5 to 7 per cent of B-heavy molasses to be diverted to ethanol production,” he said.

“With the expansion to 5,000 tonnes, which we have done for refined sugar, we will be generating 30 MW of power additionally for sale. This is also a positive direction for the company,” Shriram said.

Sugar has always been an industry which has tugs and pulls. The most logical way for the industry to move forward was to “move with” the Rangarajan committee report which linked sugarcane prices paid to farmers to sugar prices.

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