Economic and Environmental Benefits
of Cleaner Technology in Industrial
Pollution Control: Case Study of Select
Sugar Industry in Tamil Nadu
X. Agnello J. Naveen, S. Boopathi, A. Arivoli, and A. Kannan
Abstract Sugar industry pollutes air, water and soil that different types of advanced
pollution control technologies were used to reduce the pollution levels to permissible limits. But still Sugar industry manages to recycle and reuse its by-products
based on the “concept of industrial ecology” on its own production premises in a
holistic positive environmental management approach. Due to the production totally
based on agricultural products using “biomass”, which is organic from the starting
till the end of the product, there is a total life cycle assessment (LCA). Recycling of
products like water recycling in a closed loop water saving system, molasses reuse,
Co-generation (energy conservation), variable frequency drives (VFD), cane cutting,
bagasse, press muds, composting using sludge are few methods followed in this unit.
Sugar industry cost variables Economic and environmental variables, older (Conventional) and newer (Cleaner) technology and their negative and positive advantages
were compared. Variables like capital cost, variable cost, viability period of the equipment, depreciation cost, buy back cost, benefit cost and environmental benefits like
energy in (kWh) per year, water in liters per year and other recycling process like
“Add-on” and “Process change” technologies are taken in consideration. The main
objective is to focus on the cost aspects between the two technologies, conventional
and cleaner technology in pollution control. This was carried out by comparing cost
benefit analysis and Return on Investment (ROI) for the old and clean technologies.
The other parameter compared was cost benefit liter per year using cleaner recycling
leading to environmental advantage. There are nine technologies used in this industry
that has been analyzed.
X. Agnello J. Naveen (B)
Department of Enivronmental Management, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India
e-mail: agnello.naveen18@gmail.com
S. Boopathi
Department of Economics, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India
A. Arivoli
Department of Environmental Science, Government Arts and Science College, Ariyalur, India
A. Kannan
Department of Environmental Economics, Kamaraj University, Madurai, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Prashanthi et al. (eds.), Bioremediation and Green Technologies, Environmental
Science and Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64122-1_14
185
of Cleaner Technology in Industrial
Pollution Control: Case Study of Select
Sugar Industry in Tamil Nadu
X. Agnello J. Naveen, S. Boopathi, A. Arivoli, and A. Kannan
Abstract Sugar industry pollutes air, water and soil that different types of advanced
pollution control technologies were used to reduce the pollution levels to permissible limits. But still Sugar industry manages to recycle and reuse its by-products
based on the “concept of industrial ecology” on its own production premises in a
holistic positive environmental management approach. Due to the production totally
based on agricultural products using “biomass”, which is organic from the starting
till the end of the product, there is a total life cycle assessment (LCA). Recycling of
products like water recycling in a closed loop water saving system, molasses reuse,
Co-generation (energy conservation), variable frequency drives (VFD), cane cutting,
bagasse, press muds, composting using sludge are few methods followed in this unit.
Sugar industry cost variables Economic and environmental variables, older (Conventional) and newer (Cleaner) technology and their negative and positive advantages
were compared. Variables like capital cost, variable cost, viability period of the equipment, depreciation cost, buy back cost, benefit cost and environmental benefits like
energy in (kWh) per year, water in liters per year and other recycling process like
“Add-on” and “Process change” technologies are taken in consideration. The main
objective is to focus on the cost aspects between the two technologies, conventional
and cleaner technology in pollution control. This was carried out by comparing cost
benefit analysis and Return on Investment (ROI) for the old and clean technologies.
The other parameter compared was cost benefit liter per year using cleaner recycling
leading to environmental advantage. There are nine technologies used in this industry
that has been analyzed.
X. Agnello J. Naveen (B)
Department of Enivronmental Management, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India
e-mail: agnello.naveen18@gmail.com
S. Boopathi
Department of Economics, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India
A. Arivoli
Department of Environmental Science, Government Arts and Science College, Ariyalur, India
A. Kannan
Department of Environmental Economics, Kamaraj University, Madurai, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Prashanthi et al. (eds.), Bioremediation and Green Technologies, Environmental
Science and Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64122-1_14
185