FAQ
1. What is difference between Rectified Spirit, Alcohol and Ethanol?
Rectified spirit is the first product of distilleries which is collected from
rectifier column and contains around 94.5% alcohol (v/v). Alcohol is a common
name of ethyl alcohol, the scientific name of alcohol. Ethanol is also
considered to be the scientific name of alcohol but at present anhydrous
alcohol, fuel ethanol and power alcohol having alcohol content more than
99.5% are usually referred as ethanol (though misnomer but is in practice)
2. What is difference between Whisky, Rum, Brandy, Gin, and Vodka?
All of these are known as distilled liquors and the nomenclature is based on
the type of raw material used for their production e.g. whisky from grains,
rum fro cane juice, brandy from grapes, gin from juniper berries and vodka
from potato (in our country these are produced mainly from molasses, hence
named as Indian Made Foreign Liquors).
3. What is difference between Beer and Wine?
Beer produced by fermentation of malt in presence of adjuncts and hops, is a
carbonated undistilled product. Wine is produced by the fermentation of
grapes which may be carbonated also e.g. Champagne.
4. What is difference between country liquor and IMFL?
Country liquor, mainly known as ‘Desi Sharab’, is prepared from rectified spirit
or low grade ENA having alcohol content below 40% (decided by different
State Governments) which may be colored (by caramel) or may be spiced also.
IMFL usually prepared from molasses ENA and containing specific essences
and named as Whisky, Rum, Gin, Vodka etc.
5. What are the names of industries producing Beer, Wine, Whisky, Rum etc.?
Beer production units are known as Breweries and Wineries produce wine
while distilleries produce Whisky, Brandy, Rum, Gin etc.
6. What are the raw materials for the production of distilled liquors?
These include grains, malt, juniper berries, grapes, potato etc.
7. What is the name of the organism responsible for fermentative production of
alcohol?
Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
8. What is meant by fermentation?
Fermentation is a process of microbial biotransformation of organic
compounds in which chemical changes are brought about by the enzymes
present in microorganisms. It is mainly associated with the microbial enzymes
and chemical changes brought about by them. Alcohol is the chemical
produced in largest quantities by fermentation.
9. What are different types of commercial fermentation procedures being
adopted in Indian Distilleries?
These are batch, continuous, fed batch and biostil.
10. What are the different distillation techniques adopted by Indian distilleries?
These are atmospheric and multi pressure (MPR) techniques.
11. What are different grades of molasses?
The molasses grade mainly depends on the TRS content of molasses and it is
of following grades: Grade 1 TRS 50% and above, Grade 2 TRS 44 to 49.9%,
Grade 3 TRS 40 to 43.9% and below grade TRS below 39.9%.
12. What are different types of molasses?
These are mainly (1) cane, (2) beet, (3) Blackstrap and (4) High test molasses.
1 to 3 are the byproducts of cane sugar, beet sugar and refined sugar industry
and 4 is basically a concentrated and clarified invert syrup prepared for long
time storage.
13. What is the chemical composition of raw spent wash?
Colour
Odour
pH
BOD
COD
Total solids
Volatile solids
Total Nitrogen
Potassium
Sodium
Dark brown
Smell of burnt sugar
4.5 – 5.4
55000 – 60000 mg/l
100000 – 120000 mg/l
65000 – 85000 mg/l
15000 – 35000 mg/l
1000 – 2500 mg/l
6000 – 10000 mg/l
150 – 2000 mg/l
Calcium
Magnesium
Silica
Iron
400 – 1500 mg/l
800- 2000 mg/l
300 – 1300 mg/l
50 – 187 mg/l
14. What is the quantity of alcohol produced from different raw materials?
Molasses
B- Heavy molasses
Grains
Sugar cane
225 – 235 l/ton
300 – 310 l/ton
above 400 l/ton
70 – 75 l/ton
15. What is the quantity of biogas generated from distillery spent wash?
It is 0.53 M3 / kg of COD reduced
16. What is the quantity of spent wash produced per litre of alcohol produced?
It is 8 – 10 litres / litre of alcohol, however, it is 14 litres / l of alcohol in batch
fermentation process.
17. What is the quantity of steam required for production of ethanol from
molasses.
2.3 – 2.5 kg l of ethanol
18. Which is the most widely used method for handling distillery spent wash?
The methods normally used are biomethanation, MEE and Biocomposting (in
covered area), biomethanation, MEE and incineration boiler or MEE followed
by slop fired boiler.
19. How production of alcohol differs in grain based and molasses based
distilleries?
Production of alcohol from grains mainly involves additional steps like
liquefaction, gelatinization and saccharification of starch to convert it into
glucose (fermentable sugars). Rest of the steps are same.
20. What are the recent guidelines for achieving ZLD in distilleries
The methods suggested by CPCB are biomethanation, MEE and Biocomposting
(in covered area), biomethanation, MEE and incineration boiler or MEE
followed by incineration in slop fired boiler.