A hi-tech sugar syrup plant project has been especially designed after due research to increase white sugar production in the country, cut losses, and result in greater prosperity, especially among the rural population.
The project will help arrest invisible losses in the antiquated sugar industry, which are up to 30-35 percent annually, from both the industry and growers' point of view, said the convenor Sugarcane Growers Association (SGA), Javed Malik at a SGA meeting here on Friday, according to a press release. He said that sugar chemistry demands that harvested cane be crushed within 12 to 24 hours, while in efficient sugar mills it is often crushed after 3 to 4 days, while normally mills take about 5 to 6 days, which dries up the cane syrup and results in losses.
The new plant at this point is a small and efficient unit with the capability to crush sugarcane within 12 hours, thus arresting the invisible losses up to the tune of 30 to 35 percent, he added.
He said being small and cost-efficient, the plants will focus on development of varietal sugarcane in our gate areas, including early, middle and late maturity varieties, which will increase quality sugarcane and white sugar production manifold.
These small sugar syrup units of 500 TCD capacity would be satellite units of nearby bigger sugar mills with continuous supply of quality sugar syrup to help bigger mills to run to full capacity and produce white sugar competitively.
Designing engineers told the meeting that the unit, to be equipped with the latest high pressure steam technology, will also produce over one megawatt electricity on 24 hour basis from the bogass. This should bring down the cost of running the industry, coupled with increased sugar syrup quality and quantity, and bring prosperity to rural and urban Pakistan at the grass-root level, they explained. "It is a win-win position for all stake holders in the sugar industry," said the convenor SGA.