Shri Gurudatt Sugars Ltd. Is establishing a unique role model by adopting best principles of co-operative sector in private management for the development of the industry and the community it serves.
SGSL is a vibrant, aggressive, young sugar company with highly ambitious growth plans. Their continuous efforts are for reaching unchallengeable path of progress to achieve milestones of excellence for the betterment of farmers, stake holders, employees and society in particular.
Question 1: Kindly share your experience about working at sugar factory and what is the most stressful part?
Answer: My experience about working in a sugar factory is very interesting & challenging since I am an Engineer and what we have learnt in our engineering studies is put to practical use, such as cane milling plant, Boilers, steam turbines, centrifugal, Electrical machinery all sophisticated equipments and refreshes our knowledge. Sugar industry is a seasonal industry and crushing period is 6 months from November to April. The balance 6 months is dedicated to dismantling, overhauling, modifications, and repairs & recommissioning of the plant and machinery for next season. The results of the season achieved reflect how sincerely we have done our work and where one has failed.
Sugar cane detoriates once it is harvested and for achieving optimum capacity and sugar recovery the time from cutting & crushing should be less than 24 hrs. Once juice is extracted it detoriate faster till it is converted into syrup. The conversion of juice to sugar is a chemical process, so this improves our knowledge of chemical engineering and therefore it is very interesting. Everyday during the season there are problems and being a continuous process round the clock for six months is a challenge and to keep the wheel moving is interesting.
The most stressful part is when there is stoppage of the crushing due to some mechanical, electrical, & process problem. During this time the harvested cane is in the caneyard, which puts everybody into tension from management, engineers, chemists, harvesting labour, transporter and farmers. The attention of all concerned with the factory gets diverted to the G.M.Technical and the engineering staff. This experience is most stressful.
Question 2: What would you do to make sugar factory a better place to work?
Answer: My personal experience is that sugar factory is a good place to work for this what you saw during off season, the same you will reap during crushing season.
During the off season when the machinery is dismantled a minute inspection of the bearings, journals and important parts are done personally and no problem is overlooked. The lubrication arrangement to all the parts are checked and overhauled. This helps to keep all the parts in a healthy condition for continuous working for six months. The filtration of the lubricating oil during running of the equipment is equally important. Bypass filtration to all the equipments to be provided so that the filters can be cleaned during operations.
During the operation of the plant, preventive maintenance programme is carried out. The temperature of all important parts is monitored on a centralized panel. Corrective action are taken if abnormal working is observed. Regular checking of vibration of rotating machinery like ID, FD & SA fans for Boilers. Turbo alternator rotors etc. are checked with portable vibration monitoring system.
It would be worthwhile mentioning that Shri. Gurudatt Sugrs Ltd. has recorded total stoppage of 1 to 2% of the total crushing hours as against 6 to 8% of the standard norms. We have provided on line cleaning of evaporator by isolating the particular evaporator with valves for cleaning during operation otherwise cleaning of 24 to 30 hrs. is required every month. We have provided VFD drives for all the motors in the factory this helps in providing automation to all equipment and reduction in power consumption.
Energy Audit is carried out during every crushing season. This helps to identify areas of poo energy management and specific steps needed to improve the situation.
In a sugar factory the audit would account for energy for energy input by way of bagasse consumed in the boilers and electrical energy imported or generated from the power generating station. The consumption of energy for heating & boiling, mechanical operations for milling, pumping, centrifugals are accounted. Export of power to the grid can be maximized.
Question 3: Shri Gurudatt Sugars is one of the leading sugar manufactures, we would like to know your concern towards environment?
Answer: The particulate content in the fly ash was below 100mg/NM3 as per MPCB norms but the handling of wet fly wash posed problems.
The technical team of Shri Gurudatt Sugars Ltd. along with Honorable Chairman Shri. Madhavrao B. Ghatge saheb studied the proposal of bagasse dryer from Enviropol. After detailed evaluation it was decided install the Bagasse drier which had two told advantages while the bagasse moisture was reduced from 48% to 38 % the dry bagasse would entrap the fly ash particles in fuel and fire the same into the boilers. Thus it solved the problem of fly ash handling. The particulate matter in flue gases was well below 100mg/Nm3 as per MPCB norms.
The dry bagasse improved boiler efficiency and lead to save @2.5 to 3 Ton bagasse as compared to previous bagasse consumption of 70 TPH boiler.
For the expansion of project in the year 2014 one Boiler of 40 TPH Boiler was installed with ESP. The particulate matter was below 100mg/Nm3 as per MPCB norms.
We have developed fully atomized water treatment plant. During season excess condensate water is generated in boiling house section, we are treating this excess condensate water in our Condensate Polishing Unit & this treated water is use in our Cogeneration unit. Therefore we are not taking water from river for the plant industrial operation. Along with this we try to maintain zero discharge of effluent water to effluent treatment plant.
Question 4: What are the most suitable technologies to reduce the pollution from boiler flue gas?
Answer: Suitable technologies to reduce pollution from boiler flue gas in sugar factory Boilers. In a modern sugar complex exporting power, boilers are designed for variety of biomass (bagasse, rice husk, wood chips, cane trash, coconut and almond shell or mustard husk, spent wash, bio gas and fossil fuels(coal, lignite or oil) under combination firing or independently. However this flexibility comes with several environmental issues in terms of solid particulates gaseous pollutants, condensate acid mist and heavy metals while prevailing technologies such as ESP, Bag Filters and Wet scrubbers it is not possible to address all these issues simultaneously with a single system Wet Electrostatic Precipitators – WESP has proceed to be a promising technology which overcomes the limitations of prevailing system. WESP is an integration of wet scrubbing and electrostatic preparation which makes it an ideal solution to address most complex environmental issues. The above system has been working at Daurala Sugar Works U.P. Satisfactorily.
Advantages of WESP:
Question 5: How the present COVID-19 scenario is being tackled by your company and team members in your area?
Answer: The Corona epidemic has spread all over the world, affecting many industries, traders and all other factors. Corona entered Maharashtra when the crushing season of sugar mills was in its final stages. Several factories took corona preventive measures.
M/s Gurudatt Sugars ltd. Takliwadi also took several preventive measures to combat corona under guidance of Hon. M. B. Ghatge. (Chairman & Managing Director) & Hon. R. M. Ghatge (Executive director). Educated to all workers and officials to wash their hands with clean water and use sanitizer while entering the factory and also gave masks to each employee. Social distancing maintained while registering attendance, working area & in mess . And health check-up of all staff and officers regularly. Disinfection was sprayed in the factory and in all the villages in the factory area.
Four thousand cane harvesters were provided with essentials goods, masks, sanitizers and fodder for their animals. Sanitizers were distributed to the tehsil administration staff and police administration staff.
Question 6: At last we request you to please give your suggestion to our future generation to save our mother earth?
Answer: Major global environmental problems threaten us. Recent scientific reports show that we are falling short on tackling climate change or stopping biodiversity loss, meaning that the Earth’s climate is under threat and natural species are undergoing a mass extinction wave. While these global environmental issues persist and become more urgent. So I suggest to young generation that they can save earth by doing following things.
1) Reduce, Reuse & recycle. Cut down on what you throw away.
2) Volunteer for cleanups in your community.
3) Educate your related persons for the environmental importance.
4) Conserve water.
5) Shop wisely
6) Use long lasting light bulbs
7) Plant trees & save the greenery.