Rs 70-bn gift not sweet enough? Sugar mills seek 25% hike in ethanol prices

The sugar package is certainly going to benefit distilleries in the long run, provided ethanol price is increased by 1.5 times, an industry insider said

Sugar mills have sought 25 per cent increase in ethanol prices for the next season for a smooth production of sugar directly from cane juice.

Currently, oil-marketing companies (OMCs) are paying around Rs 41 a litre for molasses-based ethanol production, considered to be a byproduct for sugar mills. Later, molasses are converted into rectified spirit to make potable or industrial alcohol. This rectified spirit, with around 95 per cent of the green fuel, is processed minutely to make ethanol after dehydration.

Conversion of molasses into ethanol does not require a large scale of factory set-up, resulting into its lower cost