DAYANANDA SAGAR COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Shavige Malleshwara Hills, Kumaraswamy Layout, Bangalore – 560078. (An autonomous institute affiliated to
VTU, Approved by AICTE & ISO 9001: 2008 Certified) Accredited by National Assessment & Accreditation
Council (NAAC) with ‘A’ grade

Department of Chemical Engineering

Internship report

BHALKESHWAR SUGAR LTD.

August - September, 2022

Submitted by:

SAGAR 1DS19CH026

Under the guidance

Mr. Veeresh Halinge

1
2
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge some very important people who have been a great source of
support and guidance to me, either directly or indirectly, throughout the completion of my
internship.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude towards Dr. Ravishankar, Head of the
Department, Department of Chemical Engineering, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering,
for being extremely motivating and supportive.

I would like to express my gratitude towards Bhalkeshwar Sugar Ltd for giving me an
opportunity to carryout an internship and helping me broaden my horizon
.
Lastly, I would like to thank my Family and Friends, for their continuous support and
encouragement.

SAGAR
(1DS19CH026)

3
INTRODUCTION

 About the Organization

Bhalkeshwar Sugar Ltd was incorporated in 2000 to establish a sugar cum co-generation project along
with provision for distillery and bio-compost. It is located in a rural and backward area. It will serve as
a powerful media for augmenting the socio economic prosperity of the farmers in particular and the
industrial development in backward district in general.

BSL is the latest and most progressive sugar industry in the district, having started crushing operations
in the month of Feb, 2014. The trial production was taken up for two months which has been quite
successful. Crushing of 50000 MT has been taken up successfully with a recovery rate of 9.5% during
trial itself. About 45000 QTls sugar was produced which was rated as No 1 in the district among the 4
units existing. The other three mills are of co-operative mills and BSL is the only limited company
mill. BSL has a sugar mill with a crushing capacity presently 2500 TCD which can go up to 3500 TCD
as the required arrangements are made during the installation of the mill itself. It has a licensed
capacity of 5000 TCD which can go up to 6000 TCD. It has licensed capacity of co-gen 30 MW and
presently undertaking the generation of 14 MW. It has also license for production of 60 KLPD
distillery and presently taking up 45 KLPD production. The company has geared up for its full
capacity during the ensuing season and also simultaneously taken up for expansion up to licensed
capacity.

BSL has been registered under company’s’ act, 1956 vide regn No08/27184 on 02/06/2000 the sugar
factory is located in a backward and most potential area. It is in the midst of cane growing area. Its
command area is spread over a radial distance of 50 KMs which is quite large with sufficient supply
potential to the factory.

As already mentioned the BSL has the licensed capacity of 5000 TCD sugar, 30 MW power and 60
KLPD distillery. It has already set up 2500 TCD capacity sugar cane, 14 MW power and 45 KLPD
distillery as a part of its first phase. The company has started the process of expansion up to licensed
capacity which is likely o be completed by next year. The company is located in the area of more than
100 acres with a provision for all facilities for staff and future expansion

4
  VISION AND MISSION OF THE ORGANIZATION
The BSL stands with the collective efforts and confidence of our farmers, workers, vendors and mainly
our valued share holders and Bankers have helped us in growing ever during the thick and thin periods
of company’s installation. We have given special consideration to our share holders, farmers and to our
social obligations. BSL is geared up to think beyond the crystal.
To provide energy to the energy starved nation, by making best use of its bi-product called Bagasse
which is converted to power and another bi-product called molasses which is translated to ethanol. To
maximize and make best use of agri industry in india and helping the farmers of the nation who
happened to be the backbone of the nation.
To increase the value of share holders investments with a continuous improvement in financial
performance and adding value for our bi-products.
BSL would like to bring down cost of conversion by adding economies of scale strategy when
company expands its capacity of sugar production, co-generation and ethanol by additional equipments
to the existing unit and also setting up of other units of bi-product and subsidiaries.
BSL plans to grow with the farmers of the region. Company intends to grow and led the farmers of the
region grow along with the company.

Board of Directors
Sl.No Name Designation
1 Prakash C Khandre Chairman and Managing Director
2 Prasanna P Khandre Executive Director
3 Jagdish Khandre Director
4 Rachappa B Patil Director
5 Shanker Rao Kottarki Director
6 D D Pawar Director
7 Uttam Chand Sethia Director

5
 ACHIEVEMENTS

We are glad to state that the unit has completed its installation in a record time of 18 months as against
public perception of several years. It has all the modern equipment’s with the vision of smooth switchover
to changing technologies. The company declared COD on 24.02.2014. And taken trial production during
the season 2013-2014.
The sugar product is considered best in the quality and well accepted in the market.
Its performance during trial has been good with smooth operation with crushing of 50000 MT with
sugar production of 45000 Qtls. It has been outstanding achievement as compared to similar units in the
state.
The company is looking forward to crushing of 5.5 lakh MTs of sugar cane with a recovery rate of 11%.
Power generation is expected to be its full capacity of 14 MW during the first phase in the ensuing season.

DETAILS OF THE INTERNSHIP

About the Sugar-Crystal Clear and Healthy

BSL is known for quality, hygiene and good taste. We produce plantation white sugar of very high
quality with less than 100 icumsa. The sugar produced meets the international standard of very low
NSR (Non soluble residue) value of less than 20 PPM. Sugar manufacturing process at our plant
takes place under strict quality control measures and produced sugar is no where touched by hands.
We are always among the first to adopt latest equipments and technology to ensure that our product
quality is nothing but the best. BSL sugar is crystal clear and is known to be sweeter and healthier
than many other sugar brands.

Three categories of sugar:

BSL is categories in three different categories based on crystal size:
Small,
Medium and
Large.

We produce sugar of following grades:

M-30, S1-30 and S2-30, out of which maximum production is of 30 color sugar.(30 is the best color
standard fixed by the Govt of India). Sugar grading is done for color and grain size. Sugar produced is
regularly matched with N.S.I. standards. % retention of sugar is currently is being maintained at 85% +
as against minimum requirement of 70%.Sugar is used not only as a constituent in foods produced at
home and industrially produced foods, but also as raw material in fermentation to produce ethyl
alcohol, butyl alcohol , clycerine and citric acid. Sugar is also an ingredient in some transparent soaps
6
and it can be

7
converted to esters which yields tough, insoluble and infusible resins. Sale of white crystal sugar is now
in free market done. For now, sugars mills are allowed to sell even at one go the part of the production
which they can sell in the open market. Sugar mills can sell their total production in the open market.

Fig 1. Sugar Crystals

MOLASSES
An important Bi-product
The company feels that the more the extent of diversification of product base, the less will the reliance be
, of the industry on domestic prices of sugar. This justifies the importance it attaches to the Bi-products
including molasses. Molasses, an important Bi-product of the sugar industry, is used extensively for the
manufacture of ethyl alcohol and alcohol based downstream chemicals in addition to manufacture of
portable alcohol.
It is the Bi-product obtained in the preparation of sugar through repeated crystallization. The yield of
molasses per ton of sugar cane varies in the range of 4.5% to 5%. It contains nearly 45% un-crystallized,
fermentable sugar and some sucrose. It is also used as food for farm animals and in the manufacture of
several processed tobaccos.
Increase in the production and quality of molasses is obviously going to reflect in the increased
production of industrial alcohol, which is another thrust area for BSL. The company setting up a distillery
with a daily production capacity of 60 litters per day and may very soon enter into the production of
Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL).
The state Government controls the export of molasses through export licenses issued every quarter.
Molasses and alcohol-based industries were decontrolled in 1993 and are now being controlled by
respective state government policies. Nearly 70% of molasses produced is consumed by the industrial
alcohol manufacturers and the remaining 30% is consumed by the portable alcohol sector.
8
Fig 2. Sugarcane Molasses

Area of Operation

REGISTERED OFFICE & HEAD OFFICE

o MAHATMA GANDHI SAHAKAR SAKKARE KARKHANE LTD.,
o Hoonji (A)
o Bhalki – 585328
o Dist.: Bidar
o State: Karnataka
o Phone Number: 08484-265779
o Fax: 08484-265498
o Email ID: 1. Mgsskltdbhalki@yahoo.co.in
1. mgssk@bsnl.in

Infrastructure Facilities

 Bonus is 8.33% based on the worker’s salary.

 Quarters, hospital etc. Facility and allowances are given.
 Canteen facility is made available to the employees.
 Promotion facilities available.
 Permanent workers get one increment every year.

9
COMPANY DETAILS

CIN U15421KA2000PLC027184

Company Name BHALKESHWAR SUGARS LIMITED

Company Status Active

RoC RoC-Bangalore

Registration 27184
Number

Company Category Company limited by Shares

Company Sub Non-govt company

Category

Class of Company Public

Date of 02 June 2000

Incorporation

Age of Company 22 years, 0 month, 0 days

Activity Manufacture of other food products

Click here to see other companies involved
in same activity.

10
Demand-Supply Shortfall in
Ethanol supplies

The EBP was initially launched by oil firms in 2003, with an objective of blending ethanol with
petrol. Currently, the programme is being implemented in 21 states and 4 union territories with a
target of achieving 5 per cent blending and progressively increasing to 10 per cent blending.
According to the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the approximate ethanol
availability in India is 300 Crore litres. Of this, about 130 Crore litres goes into making liquor,
which is non-negotiable for states as liquor is a major revenue source for them. That leaves around
170 Crore litres, out of which about 60 to 80 Crore litres goes into making chemicals. That leaves
about 100 to 120 Crore litres for blending. From December 1, 2015 to November 30, 2016, 111
Crore litres of ethanol was procured by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) which would be
sufficient for blending of only 3.5 per cent. During 2016-17, because of drought in Karnataka and
Maharashtra, overall sugarcane and ethanol production reduced considerably and only 66.5 Crore
litres could be procured from suppliers. According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA),
sugar mills are set to more than double the supply of ethanol to fuel retailers for blending with
gasoline in 2017-18. Ethanol manufactures and OMCs finalised supply contracts for a record 1.4
billion litres during 2017-18 (to realise 4 per cent blending), compared with 665 million litres a
year ago.
OMCs, however, find it hard to locally procure the sugar by-product at the government-fixed rates
as state governments have imposed heavy taxes on ethanol, widely used in the liquor industry.
Sugar mills also prefer to sell ethanol to distilleries, where they get a better price and quicker
deals. According to Union government rules, 10 per cent of ethanol extracted from sugarcane can
be mixed with petrol. However, till now, the government had not been able to achieve the target
due to inadequate supply. Reasons for this include the non-uniform distribution of raw material
throughout India and the lack of compulsory transportation and storage. Further, regulatory and
policy approaches on excise duty, storage and transportation of ethanol and pricing strategy of
ethanol compared to crude oil, are yet to be revised and implemented effectively.

Fluctuations in supply of raw material

In India, sugarcane molasses are the major resource for bio-ethanol production and inconsistency
of raw material supply is the major cause behind the sluggish response to blending targets. Since
sugarcane production is cyclical, ethanol production also varies accordingly and does not assure
optimum supply levels needed to meet the demand at any given time. The blending targets are
partially successful in the years of surplus sugar production but unfulfilled when it declines.
Drastic fluctuation in the pricing of sugar cane farming and sugar milling has resulted in mill
owners being hugely indebted to farmers. Currently, Uttar Pradesh (UP)’s sugar mills have unpaid
cane arrears owing to falling prices and a market glut and are saddled with huge quantities of
11
molasses. It is reported that currently, UP sugar mills have unsold molasses of more than 2.62
million tonnes (MT) which have not been procured by liquor manufacturers. Permission is
required for transferring molasses intending to produce ethanol and such applications are pending
with the state excise department, which need to be processed urgently. As the domestic sourcing
of ethanol is continuously failing to achieve the target, there is a need to look at other alternatives.

Project description with process details (a schematic diagram/flow chart showing the project
layout, components of the project etc) should be given.
Process Description
This is a simple three step process namely molasses preparation, fermentation and distillation.

12
General Process of Alcohol Production:
Molasses is the chief raw material used in India for production of Alcohol. Molasses contains
about 50% total sugars, of which, 30 to 33% are cane sugar and the rest are reducing sugar.
During the fermentation, yeast strains of the species saccharomyces cerevisiae, a living micro-
organism belonging to class fungi converts sugar present in the molasses, such as sucrose or
glucose to alcohol. Chemically this transformation for sucrose to alcohol can be approximated by
the equation.

C12H22O11 + H2O = 2C6H12O6

Cane Sugar Glucose
C6H12O6 = 2C2H5OH + 2CO2
180 = 2x46 + 2x44
Glucose Ethyl Alcohol Carbon-dioxide

The 180gm of sugars on reaction gives 92gm of alcohol. Therefore, 1tonne of sugar gives 511kgs of
alcohol. The sq. gravity of alcohol is 0.7934. Therefore, 511kg of alcohol is equivalent to
511/0.7934=644 litres of Alcohol. During fermentation other by 7-products like glycerine, succinite
acid etc. Are also formed form sugars. Therefore, actually 94.5% total fermentable sugars areavailable
for alcohol, under ideal condition theoretically. Normally only 80 to 82% efficiencies are realized on
plant. One tone of molasses containing 45% F sugars given alcoholic yield 255-265 litres per ton.
For bringing out above biochemical reaction, we require proper and careful handling of yeast, optimum
parameters like pH and temperature control and substrate concentration, which results into effective
conversion of sugars to alcohol. For manufacture of yeast, separate equipment known as pure yeast
culture apparatus is required. Initially, yeast is developed in the laboratory from the single cell yeast
culture. In the laboratory, yeast is propagated in a test tube 10ml. Then it is transferred to a bigger flask
of 500 ml flask, and transferred to 5litre flask containing the sterilized molasses solution. It is
necessary to adjust the pH of the molasses solution in the range etc. Each stage of development of yeast
propagation, namely 100 litres, 500 litres and 5000 litres. All these equipment’s are designed so as to
facilitate boiling molasses solution in order to sterilize it and also cooing o bring it to the proper
temperature of 33oC and letting in culture and taking out culture. Boiling, cooling introducing culture,
etc. is done in aseptic manner, i.e., keeping the fermentation medium free from any kind of infection.
Further, stages of yeast propagation are done in open tanks i.e., pre-fomenter requires about 8 hours in
order to build up necessary concentration of yeast in them. Finally, pre-fomenter is emptied in an
empty fomenter, which is previously cleaned and kept ready. Dilute molasses solution is allowed to
flow in this fomenter so as to fill it to its working capacity, say about one lakh litre.

13
The average efficiency of conversion of sugars in molasses to alcohol is 80 to 85% of theoretical
value. All the sugars are not converted to alcohol during the process of fermentation because
chemicals like glycerine; succinate acid, etc. are also produced by yeast during their metabolic
process. Therefore, it is not possible to have 100% efficiency of conversion of sugars to alcohol. The
average yield of alcohol from molasses is about 250 litres from 1 MT of molasses.

Recently, attractive developments have taken place in the field of fermentation and distillation
whereby one can get high yield of 270 to 285 litres per ton of molasses.
The next stage in the manufacture of alcohol is to separate alcohol from fermented wash and to
concentrate it to 95% alcohol called as rectified spirit. For this purpose, method of distillation is
employed. The distillation columns consist number of SIEVE plates where wash is boiled and
alcoholic vapours are separated and concentrated on each place stage by stage.

Manufacturing process
• The manufacturing process for molasses-based ethanol consists of following.
• Feed preparations
• Yeast Propagation and continuous fermentation.
• Multi-pressure Distillation with integrated spent wash evaporator  Stillage processing
• Molecular sieve dehydration for Fuel Alcohol

Feed preparations and weighing

Molasses stored in a storage tank is first weighed in a tank with load cells so that accurate
quantity can be fed to the fermentation section. The weighed molasses then transferred from tank
to the diluter in fermentation section where it is diluted with water and fed to the fermenter.

Yeast Propagation and continuous fermentation

In this process we propagate the generally, marked, highly efficient yeast strain under aseptic
conditions, in yeast culture vessel.

The ready yeast seed is then transferred from culture vessel to fermenter. The glucose in media gets
converted to ethanol, in each of the 3 fermenters operating in continuous cascade mode. CO 2 liberated
during reaction is sent to CO2 scrubber for recovery of ethanol otherwise being lost in vent. The
equipment is well de-signed to achieve enhanced efficiencies through better sugar/ yeast contact by
shearing and mixing, efficient oxygen etc.,

14
The sludge is separated from wash after fermentation in a wash settling tank with lamellar assembly
and then concentrated in centrifugal decanter.

In cascade mode of operation, the yeast is recycled by using centrifugal yeast separators and then
acidified in yeast acidification tank. The yeast slurry is then reactivated and again sent to 3’d culture
vessel.

Multi-pressure Distillation
The fermentation wash containing Alcohol, non-fermentable solids and water is supplied to Distillation
to separate the alcohol and other impurities, as a continuous flow. The distillation system is designed
for premium quality extra neutral alcohol. The system details are as below.

The distillation system is designed for premium quality extra neutral alcohol. The system details are as
below.

The system consists of 7 columns, namely CO 2 stripper, Stripper column, Pre-reactor column,
Extraction column, Rectification Column, Refining Column, Fusel Oil column.

Wash is fed to CO2 stripper column to remove CO2 gas present in wash. Alcohol is stripped off water in
stripper column. The distillate from stripper column is fed to pre-rectifier column to remove most of
fusel oil and the distillate from pre-rectifier column is fed to extraction column after dilution with DM
water. In extraction column most of the high boiling impurities separate from ethanol in presence of
water. The bottom ethanol water mixture is pre-heated by system condensate and spent lees before
being fed to rectifier column. In rectifier column product rectifier spirit is taken out from top tray and
fed to refining column where mainly methanol impurities are separated. Pure ENA is obtained at
bottom, which is cooled and stored. The impure spirit from top of pre-rectifier column, extraction
column, rectifier column and refining column are top and balance alcohol is recycled to pre-rectifier
column. The alcohol containing fusel oil from pre-rectifier and rectifier column id also fed to fusel oil
column.

The top vapors from stripper column, Extraction column and fusel oil column are condensed in
evaporator for spent wash concentration. The rectifier column, fusel oil column and pre-rectifier
column get heat from stream at 3.5 bar (g).

Rectification column and pre-rectifier column works under positive pressure. The top vapors from
rectifier column are condensed in stripper column for giving heat to stripper re-boiler. Most of the other
columns work under vaccum.

15
Stillage Processing
The spent wash at approximate 12.6 % w/w concentration from distillation is concentrated in a multi
effect evaporator to approximate 55% w/w. This concentrated spent wash will then be burnt in the

boiler along with biogas/rice husk/ coal to produce high pressure steam. The steam is then sent to
turbine to generate electric power for its captive use in the industry. The exhaust steam from turbine
will be utilized in evaporation and distillery plants.

Molecular sieve dehydration for fuel grade anhydrous alcohol

Rectified spirit at Azeotropic concentration is pumped by a feed pump to the dehydration plant. The
rectified spirit containing 95 % alcohol and 5 % water will first pass-through feed economizer, then
through a vaporizer cum super heater which will convert the rectified spirit feed to superheated
vapours. The superheated vapour will pass through a sieve column, which is already regenerated and
pressurized to working pressure. All the water vapours present in vapor mixture are adsorbed in the
column. Along with alcohol traces of alcohol are also adsorbed in the column. The Anhydrous alcohol
vapours free from water vapours exhausted from the column are duly condensed in the re-boiler at the
recovery column and is further passed through feed economizer to preheat the incoming feed and then
to a final product cooler. After saturation of sieve column with water, the flow will be shifted to the
next sieve column, which is already regenerated and pressurized. After completion of dehydration
cycle, the sieve column saturated with water is regenerated by evacuation of adsorbed water and
alcohol. The evacuated vapours are condensed. The condensed mixture of alcohol and water is then fed
to a recovery column, which enriches the stream back to azeotropic composition. This sequence of
adsorption and regeneration of sieve column continues.

16
 Process Flow diagram of distillery (120 KLPD)

Water Requirement
Source of water Tungabhadra. For Existing 60 KLPD distillery water requirement is 540 KLD (@
9 KL/KL of alcohol). For expansion, about 1596 KLD of water is required and out of which
freshwater demand is 600 KLD (@ 5 KL/KL of alcohol). Hence total fresh water requirement will
be 1140 KLD for total 180 KLPD distillery.

17
Sewerage System

Domestic sewage is treated in septic tank and soak pit. Industrial effluent will be treated in the ETP
through internal sewer network.

Industrial Waste Management

Effluent generated will be treated in the CPU of 1250 KLD and treated water will be used within the
plant premises.

Solid Waste Management

Solid waste generated from the expansion of Distillery plant is yeast sludge 20T/d which is used in the
composting process with RO rejects & spent wash during the maintenance of the incineration boiler.
Boiler ash 38.4 T/d generated will be mixed with yeast sludge and given to farmers as manure.

OUTCOMES OF THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

 The overall rating of the training programs is excellent. 18

  Management provides adequate support for training.
 Evaluation of training is done by taking feedback from employees.
 The training material is well equipped in the B.S. LTD.
 The concepts and skills covered in the training program are relevant to the job.
 Orientation on the overall company.
 Orientation at the mill department.
 Getting familiar with milling machinery.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Throughout my internship program at Bhalkeshwar Sugar Ltd, I was able to get better
understanding about the process of the sugarcane.
I have heard about sugar factories and learnt more about them. However, I have never had a
chance of real and practical experience of what intakes to have sugar factory. It was therefore, my
first time in real sugar factory and there was a lot to observe and learn. The experience reflects the
importance of internship in such institution as a learning process because the real environment and
practicality of what they learn and train for become real.
This internship has thus enabled me to comprehend how the process of sugar works, which will
help me in my future endeavors in the corporate world as well as the R&D area.

19
20