Uttar Pradesh becomes country’s largest ethanol producer thanks to heavy molasses conversion

In India, the Times of India newspaper reports that Uttar Pradesh has become the country’s largest ethanol producer with 12.3 billion liters of production this season, thanks to a significant diversion of heavy molasses to ethanol rather than sugar production. For the 2020/21 crush, 20 sugar mills were producing ethanol from heavy molasses whereas only two were doing so during the prior year. In addition to ethanol for blending with gasoline, mills produced 17.7 million liters of sanitizers to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.