NCS Sugars to set up zero discharge ethanol unit

NCS Sugars, part of the Hyderabad-based NCS Group, is setting up a zero discharge ethanol manufacturing unit at Bobbili in Vizianagaram at a cost of Rs 60 crore. This will be the second such facility in the country, said group managing director N Nageswara Rao. 

A similar facility already exists in Karnataka.

“The 120 kl capacity plant would come up in 10 months to a year and make pharma and industry grade ethanol,” he told Business Standard. The unit has secured necessary approvals including from the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board and the excise department.

NCS Sugars currently has a 6,000-tonne crushing capacity and a 20 Mw cogeneration facility at Bobbili. With sugarcane acreage on the decline, the company expects to crush not more than 200,000 tonne this year, down from 4,00,000 to 6,50,000 tonne a few years ago.

To tackle cane shortage, it is importing raw sugar from Brazil to mix with canejuice for processing. "A shipment of 35,000 tonne sugar will arrive by this month end and the processed sugar would be exported. For every 105 tonne sugar imported, the company is bound to export 100 tonne. Apart from getting the benefit of processing charges, the import of sugar will help the unit achieve capacity utilisation of the plant," he said.

Among others, NCS Renewable Energies, a group company, has decided to set up a photo voltaic module unit on 25 acres in Fab City. It is yet to finalise the investment and PV module capacities.