NEW DELHI, India, Aug. 26, 2008 -- It is the second largest agro-processing industry in the country after cotton textiles. India is the largest consumer and second largest producer of sugar in the world. Sugar mills require enormous amounts of treated water for the production of sugar and ethyl alcohol. Fontus Water Ltd, India's most comprehensive total water solutions provider, has secured an order for two 40m³/hr RO plants and a 75m³/hr softening system for water treatment at the Bhaghauli Sugar and Distillery, Hardoi, UP. The water treatment system is a brackish water RO system followed by a mixed bed exchanger. With a pre-treatment system in place to make the raw water suitable for the RO membranes, the treated water would then be used for high pressure boiler feed at the mill. A portion of the steam from the high pressure boiler will be utilized for high pressure steam generation to drive the power plant turbine, while another stream will be used for process feed water. The application requires high purity water as it could lead to deposits on the turbine blades causing imbalance in the system. The 75m³/hr softening system will be utilized for the cooling water makeup system.
Sugarcane is 70% water and uses this water in processing the cane. The RO plant of Fontus has a filtration, acid dosing and an antiscalent dosing system for pre-treatment. A degasser tower of 900dia x 2400mm in the post treatment section eliminates the excess CO2 caused due to high alkalinity in raw water. It is followed by a 1450dia x 2000ht mixed bed unit which will ensure the continuous supply of highly purified water of conductivity les than 1ms/cm. A single dual media filter of 2200dia x 1500ht is used along with two high pressure pumps from ITT of 54m³/hr at 13kg/cm² and forty 8" polyamide RO membranes from Hydranautics. The RO system is designed on a two array basis so that higher recovery in the tune of more than 75% cab is achieved and wastage of water can be minimal.
Water is a critical element required in the sugar production process as it is used for clarification of juice, cleaning of evaporators, heaters and purging of boilers and from cooling systems and sanitary services. Winning the project against tough competition from top companies in India, Shrikant Deshpande, Vice President Fontus Water said, "Sugar mills consume more than 1mn cubic meters of water per day." "This is the first order of its kind for Fontus in the sugar industry. The project is expected to be up and running by October 2008." "We believe that this will be a great value addition to new or already running RO and UF systems," he added.
Fontus Water Ltd is today actively looking at various treatment challenges faced by the industrial sector and providing the optimal solutions. The company believes that optimal solutions not only help in meeting the treated water parameters but also takes into consideration the operating cost in terms of Rs/m3. There are newer technologies being proposed for specialised filtration needs to meet SDI requirements and minimize the organic impurities.
Fontus Water Ltd, the flagship company of the Earth Water Group, is India's only integrated water solutions company.
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