Empee sugars plans cogeneration unit

Chennai: Empee Sugars and Chemicals Ltd plans to set up a cogeneration unit at the sugar mill coming up in Tamil Nadu. The company will invest Rs 515 crore on the integrated sugar mill with a crushing capacity of 5,000 tonnes crushed a day, a 50 MW cogeneration plant and a 100 kilolitres per day distillery.

The company’s mill is coming up at Ambasamudram, Tirunelveli, where it has been allocated sugarcane command area covering six taluks with over 3 lakh acres of wetland and cultivable areas. This marks the company’s entry into the State. It will seek its shareholders’ nod for entering the cogen business.

The company operates a 3,000 tcd sugar mill in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, where it also has a distillery. Empee Distilleries, a group company, is putting up through its subsidiary a 20-MW cogeneration facility at the sugar mill in Andhra Pradesh.

Empee Sugars is also in the process of expanding the Nellore sugar mill to 3,500 tcd to support the need for bagasse, the fibrous material obtained when sugarcane is milled during sugar production, needed as a fuel for the cogeneration. The company also doubled its distillery capacity to 60 kilolitres a day.

The company’s entry into Tamil Nadu also marks its expansion in South India. In the pipeline is a plan to expand into Karnataka. Empee Sugars has applied for a sugar area allocation. In Bijapur district it plans to set up a 5,000 tonne sugar mill, 60 kilolitre a day distillery and a 24 MW cogeneration unit.