MSPIL Mahakaushal Sugar and Power Industries Ltd
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The grain distillery building at Bachai, with its storage tanks standing beside it.

How we make it

One site. Four processes.

Cane becomes sugar. The fibre left after crushing becomes the power and steam that run the entire complex. The filter cake pressed out during juice clarification becomes vehicle-grade fuel.

  • 8,000 TCD Sugar mill
  • 300 KLPD Grain distillery
  • 36 MW Bagasse cogeneration
  • 15 TPD CBG under development
Village Bachai, Narsinghpur 487001, Madhya Pradesh The grain distillery, Bachai

On this page

Sugar

How sugar is made.

Illustration: mill rollers and crystallisation pans in a sugar mill.
Mill rollers and crystallisation Illustration

Cane is crushed and the juice clarified into sugar.

8,000 TCD
Cane crushing
Cane in at 01. The two materials most mills pay to dispose of leave the line at 02 and 03.
  1. 01

    Cane intake

    This is the beginning of every other process on site, and the relationship that everything else is built on.

  2. 02

    Crushing

    Cane is crushed and the juice extracted. What is left is bagasse — the fibre after crushing — and we treat it as feedstock, not as something to dispose of.

    Leaves here Bagasse

  3. 03

    Juice clarification

    The juice is clarified. The filter cake removed at this stage is press mud: most mills treat it as a problem to be disposed of, we treat it as feedstock.

    Leaves here Press mud

  4. 04

    Evaporation

    The clarified juice is concentrated into syrup.

  5. 05

    Crystallisation

    The syrup is boiled until sugar crystals form.

  6. 06

    Centrifuging

    The crystals are separated from the liquor around them. What will not crystallise any further leaves as molasses.

    Leaves here Molasses

  7. 07

    Drying & bagging

    The sugar is dried, graded and bagged.

    Sold to wholesale and industrial buyers

Ethanol

How ethanol is made.

Distillation columns and pipework at the grain distillery at Bachai.
Distillation columns, Bachai Photograph

Our grain distillery converts maize into fuel-grade ethanol for India’s blending programme, running on steam and power from the cogeneration plant next door.

So the same complex supplies a transport fuel and a feed product, from one integrated steam and power system.

300 KLPD
Fuel-grade ethanol, expandable to 600 KLPD
Steam and power for every stage come from the cogeneration plant next door.
  1. 01

    Maize intake

    Grain is received and stored — bought from the same farms, under the same relationships, as the cane.

    Illustration: the grain reception pit, bucket elevator and three storage silos.
  2. 02

    Milling

    The grain is milled.

    Illustration: the hammer-mill house with its dust cyclone and control cabinets.
  3. 03

    Liquefaction & saccharification

    The starch in the grain is broken down into fermentable sugars.

    Illustration: two jacketed, agitated liquefaction tanks with their shared platform and stair.
  4. 04

    Fermentation

    The sugars are fermented to alcohol. Carbon dioxide comes off the fermentation and is recoverable.

    Leaves here CO₂

    Illustration: four stainless-steel fermenters with cooling coils under a top walkway.
  5. 05

    Distillation

    The alcohol is distilled out of the mash. The distillery’s own residue does not go to waste either — it is recovered as DDGS, a high-protein cattle feed that goes back into the rural economy as livestock nutrition.

    Leaves here DDGS

    Illustration: three distillation columns inside a braced steel tower, with the reboiler and condenser drums.
  6. 06

    Dehydration

    The remaining water is taken out to reach anhydrous, fuel-grade ethanol.

    Illustration: the molecular-sieve skid, two slim vessels with their switching valves on top.
  7. 07

    Storage & despatch

    The ethanol is stored and despatched for India’s blending programme.

    Supplied to oil marketing companies

    Illustration: the bunded storage tanks with red bands, the loading gantry and a road tanker.

Power

How power is made.

Illustration: a bagasse-fired boiler and the turbine hall of a cogeneration plant.
Bagasse boiler and turbine hall Illustration

Bagasse is fired in our cogeneration plant to raise steam and generate electricity.

The complex is not powered by coal or by grid electricity — it is powered by the residue of the cane the farmer delivered that morning.

36 MW
Installed
~10 MW
Exported to the state grid
One fuel, delivered that morning by the farmer, running both plants.
  1. 01

    Bagasse

    The fibre left after crushing goes from the mill to the cogeneration plant.

  2. 02

    Boiler

    Bagasse is fired to raise steam.

  3. 03

    Turbine

    The steam generates electricity, and steam is taken off for the mill and the distillery as process heat.

    Leaves here Process steam

  4. 04

    Captive load & grid export

    That power and steam run the sugar mill and the distillery. The surplus is exported to the state grid.

    36 MW installed · commissioned 2016

    Leaves here ~10 MW

The loop

The integrated loop.

Illustration: the domes of an anaerobic digester at dusk.
Anaerobic digester domes under development Illustration

At Bachai, in Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh, we operate a sugar mill, a grain distillery and a bagasse-fired power plant on a single site — and we are now building a Compressed Biogas plant alongside them. Cane becomes sugar; the fibre becomes power and steam; the filter cake becomes fuel; and what comes out of the digester goes back to the fields it came from.

15 TPD
Compressed biogas · under development
6 stages
Cane in, sugar, power, ethanol, gas · and back to the field
The integrated biorefinery at Bachai: farm, sugar mill, cogeneration, distillery and CBG plant on one closed loop, with fermented organic manure returning to the farm. The integrated biorefinery A CIRCULAR ECONOMY BY DESIGN 01 FARM Farmers across our command area deliver cane to the mill. 02 SUGAR MILL 8,000 TCD Cane is crushed and the juice clarified into sugar. 03 COGENERATION 36 MW Bagasse fired to raise steam and generate electricity. 04 DISTILLERY 300 KLPD Maize becomes fuel-grade ethanol for India’s blending programme. 05 CBG PLANT 15 TPD UNDER DEVELOPMENT Press mud digested and upgraded to over 96% methane. CANE BAGASSE POWER & STEAM to the mill and the distillery PRESS MUD to the CBG plant OFF-SEASON cane trash & maize stover 06BACK TO THE FARM — FOM (fermented organic manure) returns to the farms that supplied the feedstock. BACHAI · NARSINGHPUR · MADHYA PRADESH MARKET OUTPUTS SUGAR to market GRID SURPLUS ~10 MW exported to the state grid ETHANOL to oil marketing companies DDGS cattle feed CBG to market UNDER DEVELOPMENT The integrated biorefinery at Bachai, as a vertical loop: farm, sugar mill, cogeneration, distillery and CBG plant, with fermented organic manure returning to the farm. The integrated biorefinery A CIRCULAR ECONOMY BY DESIGN 06 · BACK TO THE FARM — FOM · FERMENTED ORGANIC MANURE CANE BAGASSE POWER & STEAM PRESS MUD 01 FARM Farmers across our command area deliver cane to the mill. 02 SUGAR MILL 8,000 TCD Cane is crushed and the juice clarified into sugar. → SUGAR to market 03 COGENERATION 36 MW Bagasse fired to raise steam and generate electricity. → GRID SURPLUS ~10 MW to the state grid 04 DISTILLERY 300 KLPD Maize becomes fuel-grade ethanol for India’s blending programme. → ETHANOL to oil marketing companies → DDGS cattle feed 05 CBG PLANT 15 TPD UNDER DEVELOPMENT Press mud digested and upgraded to over 96% methane. → CBG to market
  1. 01 — Cane in. Farmers across our command area deliver cane to the mill.
  2. 02 — Sugar. Cane is crushed and the juice clarified into sugar, at 8,000 TCD. Sugar to market; bagasse and press mud kept as feedstock.
  3. 03 — Power from our own fibre. Bagasse is fired to raise steam and generate electricity, 36 MW installed. Power and steam to the mill and the distillery; ~10 MW exported to the state grid.
  4. 04 — Ethanol. Maize becomes fuel-grade ethanol for India’s blending programme, 300 KLPD. Ethanol to oil marketing companies; DDGS as cattle feed.
  5. 05 — Compressed Biogas — under development. Press mud is digested and upgraded to over 96% methane, 15 TPD. Off season the plant switches to cane trash and maize stover. Compressed biogas to market.
  6. 06 — And back to the field. Fermented organic manure returns to the farms that supplied the feedstock, closing the loop.

Six stages

  1. 01

    Cane in

    Farmers across our command area deliver cane to the mill.

  2. 02

    Sugar

    Cane is crushed and the juice clarified into sugar, at 8,000 TCD.

  3. 03

    Power from our own fibre

    Bagasse is fired to raise steam and generate electricity, 36 MW installed.

  4. 04

    Ethanol

    Maize becomes fuel-grade ethanol for India’s blending programme, 300 KLPD.

  5. 05

    Compressed Biogas under development

    Press mud is digested and upgraded to over 96% methane, 15 TPD.

  6. 06

    And back to the field under development

    Fermented organic manure returns to the farms that supplied the feedstock, closing the loop.

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