Milking it dry: Amul tastes success in making bioethanol from whey

VADODARA: The milk you drink for sustenance could soon also fuel your car. Dairy major Amul has achieved success in its large-scale trial to produce bioethanol from whey, the component of milk left behind while making cheese and paneer.So far in India, ethanol has been produced from molasses, maize, farm waste or damaged foodgrain. With the success of this trial, India's largest dairy cooperative plans to invest Rs 70 crore in a bioethanol plant, producing 50,000 litres a day. It is also exploring the opportunity of working with existing bioethanol plants in Gujarat's sugar cooperatives sector."To become more sustainable, we conducted a large-scale trial of bioethanol production from cheese/paneer whey. It aimed to upcycle and create a new revenue stream for our 3.6 million farmer-owners," Jayen Mehta, managing director of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), told TOI."From 4.5 lakh litres of cheese whey, we got 20,000 litres of rectified spirit with an ethanol content of 96.71%."‘Trial conducted to bolster EBP programme’Mehta said, “This recovery rate of 4.4% can be raised to 8% in the future. Biogas (methane), dry ice and water are the byproducts of this process.”“This novel trial was conducted to bolster the Centre’s ethanol blended petrol (EBP) programme, which aims to raise the blending of bioethanol in petrol to 20%” he said.The trial was conducted at the unit of Shree Narmada Khand Udhyog Sahkari Mandli Ltd, the cooperative popularly called Narmada Sugar, at Dharikheda in Bharuch. Narmada Sugar is headed by Ghanshyam Patel, who is also chairman of Bharuch Dairy, a member union of GCMMF.Amul currently handles 3 million litres of whey each day. In Gujarat, it has three cheese plants, one at Khatraj run by Amul Dairy, another at Palanpur run by Banas Dairy and a third at Himatnagar run by Sabar Dairy. It also has 15-odd paneer manufacturing plants across the country.