1.         Spent wash to be utilized for compost making with press mud/Agriculture residue/Municipal wastes.

2.         Spent wash to be concentrated and dried/incinerated.

3.         Effluent to be used for irrigation only after Biomethanation, two stage secondary treatment and dilution with process water.

4.         Effluents (BOD<2500 mg/L) to be discharged in a controlled manner into the sea only after Biomethanation and secondary treatment so that D.O. does not fall below 4 mg/L in the mixing zone.

5.         To be used in fertiirrigation as one time controlled application on land after detailed study.

6.         Achieve zero effluents discharge in inland surface waters by December 2005.

It was also decided that new stand alone distilleries and expansions of existing distilleries will not be given environmental clearance unless they achieve zero effluent discharge in surface/ground water.

The AIDA has compiled data from 233 Distilleries across the country in 2006. Based on this data,101 distilleries had achieved 100% utilization of spent wash,17 gave incomplete information, 34 achieved 50 to 75% utilization and 22 distilleries were closed. (aidaindia.org/its08 and cpcb.nic.in).

These wastes have a renewable energy potential and a   potential of reutilization in an Environment friendly way. Some estimates are as follows:
Distillery-350 MW
Sugar-285MW
Paper and Pulp-58MW
Dairy-58MW
Poultry-44MW
Starch-40MW
Slaughter Houses-100MW

To utilize these wastes gainfully, farmers, rural cottage agro industries and their associations, local governments and Municipal organizations, NGO’s and self help groups  can be mobilized . This would give a decentralized energy generation source, improve the working and living conditions and gives a cleaner local and global environment.

Many Industries in India have started using Biomethanation Technologies. The gas produced serves as a useful source of energy while the slurry has a good fertilizer potential. The savings in fossil fuel has resulted in reducing costs and thereby increasing profits.

At a biomethanation plant installed in Sakthi Sugars, Maharashtra the Internal Rate of Return has been reported as high as 32% and the Biogas substituted for almost 87% of the consumption of Furnace oil. A biogas based power plant of 1 MW capacity was installed at the K.M.Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh with financial assistance from the Ministry of Non Conventional Energy Sources, Govt. of India. It utilizes 12000 cubic meters of biogas produced from 400 KL of spent wash per day. Kanoria Chemicals Ankleshwar has installed a 2 MW power plant based on biogas.

Many Sugar mills have also started using press mud, earlier considered as waste, for the production of biogas. Press mud has 75% organic matter and 29% total solid content out of which 65% is volatile. Four biogas plants each having a capacity of 85 cubic meters were set up at the Pravarnagar, Sugar Factory at Maharashtra with financial assistance from the MNES, Govt. of India .A biogas yield of 165 liters of Biogas per Kg. press mud (having 60% methane) with a processing time of 35 days was observed during monitoring of the stabilized biogas plant. The biogas from the plant was piped to 196 households within factory premises for 4 hours daily to meet cooking needs.

The Pradeshik Investment Corporation of U.P. (PICUP) had estimated that a 60000 TPA biofertiliser unit based on spent wash and press mud would require an investment of Rs. 209 lakhs( Land,116;Building,6.00;Plant machinery59.90 plus others). PICUP envisages a debt equity ratio of 1.49:1. Manpower required is 10 and the total power requirement is 400KVA.The cost of production works to Rs. 400 per ton, the selling price Rs. 1000 per ton and a repayment of 5 to 6 years.

Cane leaves left in the fields after harvesting of sugarcane form a thick mat on the fields and are generally burnt in the open fields without extracting any form of energy causing widespread pollution. An NGO called the Appropriate Technology Institute (ARTI) has developed an oven and retort kiln technology to char leafy waste. The plant can be operated by three persons and generate 100Kg. per day of char which can be turned into briquettes by using an extruder. In a period of 25 weeks during the sugarcane harvesting period, a family can generate about 15 tonnes of Briquettes which would earn an income of Rs. 75000. Under the Ashden Award a project using this technology aims to manage 4.5 million tones of sugar cane wastes generated in Maharashtra. Ten Sugarcane demonstration plants will be set up in Maharashtra. These briquettes are being used as a source of fuel and in innovative applications like keeping food warm in Tiffin boxes for long periods.

Leafy wastes can be a rich source of biogas. The biogas potential of leafy wastes is almost twice that of cow dung. The total annual production of leafy biomass in India is of the order of 1130 million tones. Even if 10% of this be mobilized for biogas production about 2/3rd of the rural families estimated at 100million rural households could be provided with biogas for cooking. ASTRA, IISc., has successfully developed and demonstrated several “plug flow” biogas plants in the field using leafy biomass as feed material in the southern states of Kerala.

Paper production is energy intensive. Energy costs account for more than 30% of the cost of paper production. Chemical recovery in agro based paper mills is a major constraint with most of the industries discharging untreated or partially treated black liquor which accounts for more than 80% pollution from such mills. Biomethanation plants for pulp and paper mill effluents have been installed at a few places in India and the gas is being flared to the boiler and cofired with rice husk.

Slaughter houses generate considerable solid and liquid wastes Al Kabeer Exports Pvt. Ltd, Medak, Andhra Pradesh has installed an indigenously developed two stage digestion process which handles 60MT of slaughter house wastes per day. The second stage uses modified UASB Technology. The 3000-4000 cubic meters of gas produced per day reduced the furnace oil consumption by over Rs. 40 lakhs per annum. The dried sludge almost 20 TPD is used  as  manure.

Poultry wastes can also be used to produce energy. Western Hatcheries Has installed a demonstration biogas  plant based on UASB technology to treat about 600 Kg. of poultry waste. The biogas produced is collected in gas balloons, pressurized and piped for use in canteen Kitchens. The sludge is used as a fertilizer. The plant is producing 60 cubic meter of gas per day which is equivalent to 24 Kg. of LPG. A 1.2 MW power project for 200 TPD of poultry waste has been set up at Namakhal. The total cost of the project was 14 crores with a capital subsidy of Rs. 3.5 crores.

Pine needles are a difficult forest waste. They cannot serve as fodder. They do not decay as other biomass and piled up pine needles are a major source of forest fires. They are however a good source of biomass fuel. Briquettes made up of charred pine needles are being used in the hill regions of Kumaon and Garhwal. Cities like Gurgaon are using briquettes from local biomass like bagasse and vegetable market wastes.

The organic fractions of municipal wastes can be gainfully utilized to produce biogas. The Technology Informatics Design endeavor (TIDE) in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, IISc., has implemented a project for the conversion of the organic fraction of Municipal wastes into energy and resources in Singupa town, Bellary District. A plug flow biogas reactor has been designed. Data collected shows that 1 Kg. waste gives between 50 to 60 liters of biogas. The C/N ratio of compost was found to be 11.4. Segregation and transportation are limitations that need redressal.

Coffee pulping wastes are a rich source of biogas too. The Indo Norwegian Environment project and the Coffee Board in the Ministry of Commerce have supported a project for biogas generation from coffee pulping wastes. High B.O.D. effluents can be treated in bioreactors to give biogas. The B.O.D. of the treated effluents has been reported to be below the standards prescribed. About 80 cubic meters of biogas is produced for every ton of coffee parchment. 1 cubic meter gas substitutes 0.5 Kg. LPG in cooking operations and 0.25 liters of diesel in dual fuel mode of operation in the generation of 1KWH of power. The technology has been demonstrated in 13 locations and is working satisfactorily. In the off season the bioreactor may be fed with other waste biomass like coffee husk, leaves, grass etc. to produce gas.

A bioreactor for canteen wastes has been installed at the Transport House, KSRTC,Bangalore. This reactor is an immobilized cell bioreactor- a high rate biomethanation plant  using spent biomass as support for the methanogenic bacteria. The biomass would range from rice straw, bagasse, paper shreds, garden cuttings, lawn mowing, vegetable peels, uneaten rice, plate and dish washings, fruit and vegetable rejects etc. On the basis of raw material fed to the reactor every Kg. of feed produces 50 to 80 liters of Biogas. The KSRTC plant can handle 25 Kg. of canteen rejects per day along with the leaf litter. About 1.5 cubic meter of gas is produced every day. At present the gas is being used to keep the food warm.

TERI initiated a project in 1996 for the development of a high rate reactor for biomethanation of fibrous and semisolid organic wastes. Consequently the TERI enhanced acidification and methanation process was developed and patents applied. A 50 Kg. per day green leafy vegetable waste treatment plant is operational at TERI’s Gurgaon campus at Gual Pahari. This has now been converted into a canteen waste treatment plant. Good quality biogas and manure is being generated. The TEAM (TERI Enhanced Acidification and Methanation) is a two stage process. The first phase consists of extracting a high concentration leachate (C.O.D. 15000-20000 Mg. / liter) from the solid waste in the acidification reactor. In the second phase the leachate is treated in the UASB reactor with retention of 16 hours to give methane and more than 60% C.O.D. is discharged. The acidification process residue is good quality manure after drying. The biogas consists of 70 to 75% methane, Carbon dioxide, traces of Hydrogen Sulphide and moisture. The biogas production rate is 0.45 cubic meter per Kg. of C.O.D. removed. The TERI process shows a useful way to turn wastes from food and fruit processing industries, hotels, pilgrim houses, hostels, housing colonies, community kitchens, vegetable markets etc. into wealth. Vegetable markets can produce 20 cubic meters biogas / ton of waste, fruit and vegetable processing 20 cubic meter /ton, press mud 9 cubic meter/ton, food wastes 54 cubic meter/ ton and coffee pulp 10 cubic meter/ton. The manure is richer in N.P.K. than any other natural manure.

The Ministry of Non conventional Energy Sources, India is publishing a news letter named Bioenergy News.

References
www.iges.or.jp/APEIS/RISPO/SPO/Pdf
www.picupindia.com
www.wmc.nic.in/case-studies.asp
www.teriin.org
www.tide-india.org
www.ficci.com
www.mnes.nic.in
www.cgpl.iisc.ernet.in

The provision for Environmental Audit (Statement) as prescribed under the Environmental Protection Act for 1986 has great promise but has not been able to deliver. It was designed to be a tool through which corporates analyze their environmental performance in time and take suitable measures for improvement in resource consumption and waste management. Being linked to regulations, it made industry apprehensive, apprehensive of the fact that non compliance could be used to their legal disadvantage by the regulator. This introduced some amount of misreporting in order to make the report acceptable to regulatory agencies rather than helping the industry to introspect and improve. Voluntary approaches therefore, delinked to regulation therefore are assumed to play a more important role. Public disclosures of performance indicators provide powerful financial, social and reputational incentives for reducing negative externalities. It can also induce improvements from bad performers (which may otherwise require costly litigation) and introduce a system where corporate internalize reputation effects and perform better. The PROPER PROKASIH, Indonesia’s public disclosure program has been very successful in awarding good performers and calling public attention to polluters who are not in compliance with the regulations. (Regulation in the Information age-Indonesian Public Information Program in www. performeks.com/media/downloads/information_regulation.pdf) Philippines, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil have also undertaken identical programmes.

Here at home the Centre for Science and Environment has attempted a green rating of the Paper, Automobile and Chloralkali sector (The Greenest Paper Mill in India, July, 18, 1999, cseindia.org; Who is India’s Worst Paper Maker, Down to Earth, October 15, 2004 and Environmental Rating of Indian Caustic Chlorine Sector, Chandra Bhushan and Sunita Narain, C.S.E.) and ranked the major players on environmental performance . Another study done by the same organization for the cement industry pointed out that where economic logic met environmental objectives, the industry did well like in energy use and utilization of wastes but where investments did not yield short terms results the industry failed to meet expectations like in mine management, emission control and regulating livelihoods. Societally the industry was found to be dismal. (Cement: Not As Bad As We Thought, Down to Earth, December 31, 2005). Most of these studies point out that the major factors wrong with these industries is an inefficient use of resources and a poor technology base. (The Greenest Paper Mill in India, July 18, 1999, cseindia.org/node/441)

A pilot programme for environmental performance rating and public disclosure for industries was also initiated as part of a World Bank Programme and implemented collectively through the C.I.I., World Bank and the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board. Both the authors to the present study were part of the study initiated in May 2001 which was coordinated from the World Bank by Mr. Carter Brandon, Dr. Smita Misra, Dr. Sushmita Dasgupta. (Also covered in Dr. Yashpal Singh, Environmental Performance Rating of Distilleries.www.oecd.org/data oecd) The programme covered 33 industries of different sizes and sectors at Ghaziabad and Noida. Industries were classified as Black and Red (implying lack of compliance) and Blue, Green and Gold (different levels of achieving compliance). Out of the 33 participating industries 6 were rated as Gold and Green, 16 rated Blue and 11 rated Black. This was a location specific compliance rating programme including small and medium enterprise also. It was not designed to be an environmental performance rating.

The Charter on Corporate Responsibility for Environmental Protection,2003 introduced through the efforts of the MoEF, the Pollution Control Boards and Industry Associations has seen a major break through in voluntary environmental performance.

In spite of the immense advantages that voluntary disclosure systems have, environmental performance rating exercises have been attempted but at a few places in India.

A pilot programme was commissioned by the U.P. Pollution Control Board in 2000 to evaluate and rate the environmental performance of the units in the Alcohol Industry. (Y. Singh, 2004, Environmental Performance Rating of Distilleries.www.oecd.org/data oecd) The study involved identification of the environmental indicators associated with the various activities in Alcohol production, understanding their environmental impacts and rating the environmental performance for intra industry comparisons by working out appropriate weightage systems for these indicators. The highlight of the study was the analysis of resource utilization efficiency of the units and its impact on environmental performance as well as profitability. The results of the study along with the names of the top 5 and bottom five performers were presented in an ‘open house’ where representatives from most of the participating distilleries were present. The report had concluded that in the case of Uttar Pradesh, the environmental performance of distilleries in western and Central Uttar Pradesh is better. Semi urban distilleries have a better performance as compared to rural based ones. Remarkably the study also revealed that improved environmental performance leads to better profitability. The industry was however observed to   exhibit insensitiveness to the use of raw materials, water, fuel, and power which results in enormous cost escalations. It was estimated that the sector could save more than Rs 100 crores per year it only the bad performers could come to the level of the best performers. The recommendations of the study were circulated and discussed in another open house. The participating distilleries had assured that they would take necessary action and improve their environmental performance.

Dr. Pradeep Kumar the prime mover behind this programme had hoped that the study would lead to better control of industrial Pollution besides improving the efficiency of units. The report was also presented by Dr. Yashpal Singh before representatives from all over the world at an International Conference on Economic Instruments held at Paris in 2004.The World Bank recognized this report as an important study and published a poster acknowledging the utility of the study. The poster also recommended that the exercise should be repeated so as to assess benefits.

It is in this context that the Distillery sector has been revisited to evaluate the impacts of the previous study. It also intends to tell the industry where it can still improve in order to earn better profits and reputation. While the earlier study looked into the performance indicators for the years 1998-99 to 2000-2001, this study covered the year 2004-05 to 2006-07.

The present report presents a comparative study of both the assessments. The Distillery sector with an installed capacity to convert over 3 million tonnes of molasses annually in U.P. is one of the major industrial sectors with a constantly growing contribution to the state exchequer by way of excise duty (Rs. 2912.90 Crores in 2004-2005, Rs. 3114.3 Crores in 2005-2006 and Rs 3518.3 Crores in 2006-2007). It also provides employment to more than 10,000 persons in the state. The industry has grown considerably over years. While there were 37 operational distilleries in U.P. (35 molasses based and 2 broken grains and malt based) out of a total of 43 distilleries in 2000-2001, 59 distilleries have been reported for 2006-2007 (56 Molasses based and 3 grain based). All these distilleries were requested to participate in the study. Out of these, 36 distilleries   participated. 24 distilleries have participated in both the 2000-2001 and 2006-2007 evaluations.

Conclusions

The study for the period 2000-2001 had indicated the following:

1.         Distilleries in central and western U.P. are marginally better performers.

2.         The semi urban distilleries were observed to perform better than the urban and rural based units.

3.         57% distilleries are located in the Ganga catchment followed by Ghagra and Yamuna. 86% of the distilleries discharge their effluents into the rivers (Ghagra-5, Gomti-1, Ganga-18 and Yamuna-6)

4.         An improved environmental performance leads to better profitability.

5.         The sector is not sensitive to the efficient use of raw materials, water, fuel and power. Optimization in raw material consumption and judicious use of water and energy shall reduce the production cost and increase profitability. This will make the product more competitive in the Global market and help the industry to maximize the capacity utilization.

6.         If the bad performers evaluate the best performers, the sector is likely to save Rs. 105.81 Crores by optimizing resource utilization (Molasses Rs. 26.95 Crores, Water Rs. 12.04 Crores, Biogas Rs. 22.50 Crores, Total Energy Rs. 45.32 Crores)

The following recommendations were made and presented before an open house session with Industry representatives and the Pollution Control Board.

1.         Eighteen out of the 33 units studied have a very poor environmental performance.

2.         All plants should have facilities to monitor the amount of biogas generated. They must also ensure to utilize the gas in boilers to meet the energy requirements. Where the biogas generation is poor, industries should retrofit the inefficient plants.

3.         Those units which have not installed the second aerobic stage should do it at the earliest.

4.         There is immense scope for reducing water consumption. This should be implemented.

5.         Metering systems should be installed to monitor consumption of biogas, water and electricity.

6.         Wherever feasible effluents should be utilized in production of bio-manure or in the case of grain based distilleries as cattle feed. Use of treated effluents for irrigation should be encouraged.

7.         Energy audit and trainings should be utilized

8.         Best available technologies should be utilized.

9.         Distilleries should be encouraged to implement ISO 14001.

Against these findings and recommendations these has been a considerable improvement in environmental performance in 2006-2007. 24 distilleries were common to both the phases of the study, 22 of these have improved by way of total environmental performance, 12 in terms of capacity utilization, 18 in terms of molasses consumption, 17 in terms of average recovery of alcohol, 18 in terms of water consumption, 10 (out 0f 22) in terms of total energy consumption, 14 (out of 22) in terms of total renewable energy consumption, 17 (out of 22) in terms of spent wash generation, 13 (out of 19) in terms of biogas generation, 18 (out of 22) in terms of dilution ratio.(Tables 2 to 10.

The repeat study has also reiterated the findings of the earlier study that an improved environmental performance leads to better profitability. There has been a considerable improvement in per capita use of resources although there is still scope for improvement. Two industries have adopted technologies based on concentration of spent wash and burning the same in better to generate steam and power for the process. These units show improved performance on all the energy indicators and have no effluent issues. Some new units installed in 2006-2007 or later are based on this technology.

Download the full document here : Distillery_Rating_UP

As of estimates made in 2002, India had more than 3000 tanneries with a total capacity of 700000 tonnes of hides and skins per year. The annual income from leather trade in India was about Rs 20000 crores. More than 90% of the tanneries were small or medium with a processing capacity of less then 2 to 3 tonnes of hides/skins per day. Most of the tanneries are located near river banks. The highest concentration of tanneries in India is on the banks of Ganga river (Kanpur, Unnao) in North India and the Palar river system in Tamilnadu.

Leather Production Technology and Pollution:

An animal skin consists of about 61% water, 34% fibrous proteins, 1% globular proteins, 2% lipids, 1% natural salts and some other ingredients including pigments. Out of three layers, the epidermis, dermis and the hypodermis it is the dermis which is later transformed into leather. The epidermis primarily composed of keratin has hair which is removed and the hypodermis has flesh and blood vessels which is also removed. In leather processing, the basic operations revolve round cleaning the skin of unwanted inter fibrillary material through a set of pre-tanning operations in the Beam House, processing the leather permanently by means of tanning and adding aesthetic value during the post tanning process. The starting material in most cases is raw hide or skin which has been preserved temporarily by the addition of common salt.

1. The Beam House process involves the removal of salt, dirt and hair  in the following processes:

(a)   Desalting and Soaking the hides to remove salt and other foreign material such as dirt and also to remove the moisture content.  This process uses a large amount of water about 20 m³ per ton of hide and generates conspicuous pollution. Soaking generates about 6-9 m³ per ton of effluents with a BOD from 1100 to 2500 mg/l, a COD of 3000-6000 mg/L, very high total solids and suspended solids, 15000 to 30000 mg/l of chlorides and 800-1500 mg/l of sulphates.

(b)   Unhairing and Liming – The process yields one of the most polluting effluent streams from tanneries. Liming opens up the collagen structure by removing interstitial material, fleshing removes excess tissue from the interior of the hide.  Unhairing is done by treating soaked hides in a bath containing sodium sulphide / Hydrogen sulphide and lime. About 3 to 5 m³ of effluent per tonne of hide/skin is expected to be discharged with a high pH of 10.0 to 12.8, a BOD of 5000 to 10000 mg/l and COD of 10000 – 25000 mg/l. The concentration of sulphides ranges from 200 to 500 mg/l, the total solids (24000 to 48000 mg/l) and sulphates (600-1200 mg/L) are also high.

(c)    Deliming and bating: A bath of ammonium salts and proteolytic enzymes is used to process the pelt. About 1.5 m³ of effluents are generated in the process at a pH of 7 to 9. The pollutants from the process include Calcium salts, Sulphide residues (30 to 60 mg/l), degraded proteins, residual proteolytic enzymatic agents, Chloride (1000 to 2000 mg/l), Sulphates (2000 to 4000 mg/l), BOD (1000 – 3000 mg/l) and COD (2500 to 7000 mg/l). Nitrogen based deliming agents are considered a long term environmental threat because of their impact on soil NOx values.

Sulphates are an important content of pretanning waste waters. They readily get reduced to sulphide under anaerobic conditions in waste water treatment plants like anaerobic lagoons, contact filters or up flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors. A build up of sulphides makes the biomethanation of organic materials less effective apart from adding to the COD load. Ammonia is also given off as an air pollutant in the process.