Chini Zyada
Sanjay Bumbroo

With the international bio-fuels forum comprising five major consumers of fossil fuels —USA, China, Brazil, S. Africa, the European Commission and India— having joined hands to develop, produce and promote the use of bio-fuels, there is great scope for the students who opt for B.Tech in Sugar and Alcohol Technology.

Professor and former head, Department of Applied Chemical Sciences and Technology, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, Dr Satindar Kaur, says that sugar and alcohol technology graduates are in demand to meet the growing need of ethanol as a bio-fuel. India can be a major ‘ethanol hub’ and efforts should be made to crystallise the revolution.

At present, sugar complexes are coming up at several places—11 factories in Uttar Pradesh, seven in Tamil Nadu, eight in Karnataka and four in Andhra Pradesh— and similar steps are being also being taken by Maharashtra and Punjab. In Maharashtra, excess sugarcane has been tapped by setting up a plant for producing ethanol directly from juice.

She says that keeping in mind the needs of industry, the department, which has been running a B.Tech course in sugar technology since 1993, that is duly approved by the A.I.C.T.E, has upgraded it into the Sugar and Alcohol Technology programme. It is the first of its kind in India as it is a degree course which will train the graduates to handle a sugar complex in totality. The course curriculum is a blend of sugar, alcohol and co-generation, she adds.

A sweet chance

The eligibility for admission to this course is 50 per cent marks with plus two (non-medical) and admission is on the basis of the all-India entrance test conducted by Guru Nanak Dev University in May/June every year. This course covers technical education, training and research in chemistry, sugar chemistry, sugar engineering and manufacturing technology. It also deals in detail with sugar byproducts, programming in C, waste management with emphasis on chemical engineering. To promote alcohol technology, additional courses on fermentation, microbiology, biochemistry, biotechnology and fuels have been added to the theory and practicals.

Training talk

The students also have to undertake eight months of on-season and off-season training, of which two months in a distillery are compulsory. Besides, they also undertake a three-week educational trip to sugar industries all over India and carry out a research project for one year.

Research laboratories have been set up for sugar crystallisation, rheology and N.I.R. spectroscopy and have provided material for a number of national and international journals. Calibration models have been set up using NIR spectroscopy which can be used for the quick online determination of ‘pol’ in the industry, a parameter frequently required to be determined.

The department also has a Kenchen Sucrolyser, an Abbemat and a Brookfield Rheometer and it is in the process of getting a Gas Chromatograph and an HPLC for the Alcohol analysis. At present, the department is setting up laboratories for automation in fermentation, and for developing cheap methods for dehydrating alcohol.

Placement prospects

Claiming that this university is the first of its kind in India to offer a B.Tech course ideally suitable for the sugar industry, she says it is for this reason that the students are very much in demand. The department has 100 per cent placement before the completion of the course. Students who have completed the course are currently working in the Daurala Sugar Mills, Symboili Sugar Works, Rana Sugar Mills, Beas, Indian Sucrose Ltd, Mukerian, A.B. Sugar Pvt. Ltd, Dasuya, Piccadilly Sugar Mills, Patra and Uttam Sugar Mills, Moradabad.