A sweeter second chance: Assam tests world’s first boilerless sugarcane plant

Lanka, Apr 14: Years after the closure of sugar mills in the state, entrepreneurs and agriculture engineers have joined hands to revive the industry using innovative agro-processing technology, and the initial results have been encouraging. Spray Engineering Devices Limited (SEDL) has been testing the world's first boiler-less sugarcane processing technology in partnership with Ecotech Agro Mills at a plant at Bamungaon here.

The Lanka plant has a crushing capacity of 500 tonnes per day (TCD) and is fully automated. It represents a pioneering shift in sugar cane processing to jaggery production by completely removing combustion systems, significantly reducing environmental impact, and improving product quality and yield.

"Unlike conventional sugar processing units that rely on burning bagasse (residue after cane is crushed), the SEDL-developed system operates without a boiler, thereby making the plant 100 per cent fuel-free and zero carbon. It also eliminates water discharge by recycling all recovered water for irrigation on nearby organic sugarcane farms. The integration of solar power systems further supports a minimal environmental footprint," SEDL managing director Vivek Verma said.

The plant has achieved a milestone by helping save nearly 60,000 tonnes of bagasse while processing over 1,80,000 tonnes per year of cane through its own boilerless, zero-emission sugarcane processing plant.

Sugarcane production is concentrated in the middle Assam belt, which is a rain-deficit area. Better irrigation facilities can improve the quality of sugarcane, agriculture scientists said.

Ecotech Agro Mills plans to upgrade the capacity of the plant to 750 tonnes per day and has also initiated sugarcane cultivation in around 800 bighas of land nearby.

The entrepreneurs have also been exploring the possibility of recycling the sugarcane residues (bagasse) to produce bioethanol and other bioproducts to further add to the viability of the mills. "Once we are able to make a breakthrough, it will create a new value chain and give three times more value and profit," Verma said.

Assam has around 29,215 hectares of land under sugarcane cultivation, with a potential to produce 1.35 lakh tonnes of jaggery. However, due to the absence of mills, jaggery and sugar are imported from other states. The erstwhile sugar mills, like those in Dergaon, Kampur and Cachar, had closed down due to viability issues. Sugarcane is a seasonal crop, and the crushing period is limited. This season, the average number of sugarcane crushing days in sugar mills has reduced from 150 to 120 days, leading to an increase in production costs due to stagnant sugarcane production. The central government has been emphasising the need for the sugar industry to diversify its product portfolios to ethanol, compressed biogas, hydrogen, and other value-added products to increase revenue and reduce overhead costs. India is the world's second-largest producer of sugarcane and the largest consumer of sugar.