A Review on Bio-Energy from Indian Sugar Industry

India became the worlds largest sugar producer in 2018-2019, beating out Brazil for the first time in 16 years. India produced 33.2 million metric tons of sugar which is about 20% of the worlds total sugar production of 179 million metric tons. However, the Indian sugar industry lacks in sustainability and cyclic ups and downs of the sugar production have become the trademark of the Indian sugar industry. The sugar industry which encompasses more than 532 operating sugar mills during season 2018-19, having about 300 integrated distilleries, 275 co-generation plants and several other units is technically supported by this premier research institute. The Indian sugar industry is faced with a reality that sugar, molasses and bagasse can no longer be regarded as final product from sugar industry and thus, value additions, diversifications and transformations to be vigorously investigated as possible routes to new market and making sugar industry less dependent on single commodity i.e. sugar. The future of the sugar industry, as a whole, lies in development of sugarcane bio-refineries i.e. bio-electricity, bio-ethanol, bio-gas/ bio-CNG, bio-manure and chemicals etc.