1 Product Description: Industrial alcohol is an important input in the manufacture of pharmaceutical and veterinary spirits, perfumes and alcoholic beverages. One major “raw material” for producing alcohol is molasses which is a by product of sugar factories.
2 Market Potential: Alcohol is in demand in pharmaceuticals, veterinary services, health care institutions such is health centers, clinics and hospitals, perfume producing factories, liquor producing beverage factories. Alcohol is also needed in households for emergency purposes, in barber shops and beauty salons. Many developing countries meet their alcohol requirements from imports. Molasses from which alcohol is produced is a by product of the country’s sugar factories. Domestic production of alcohol between 2000 and 2004 was on the average 14,400 hectoliters per year. On the other hand, average annual production of molasses during the same period was 50,300 tons; Molasses is used for alcohol production and as an ingredient in animal feed. Some portion of the product is exported. For a long time there has been a surplus in the production of molasses and the surplus product is dumped into streams or is used to maintain roads within the factory and plantation sites of the sugar factories.
All alcoholic beverages produced in the country are manufactured in and around Addis Ababa. These beverages are put in glass bottles and are distributed to all parts of the country near or far. The Amhara Region which is on the average about 500 km from Addis Ababa receives its share of alcoholic beverages from Addis Ababa. As the beverages are packed in glass bottles they are heavy, cumbersome and expensive to transport long distances. Between 2000 and 2004, the liquor consumption share of the Amhara Region was about 10,000 hecto liters per year on the average. Beverage products which use bottles for packaging are located near major consumer centers to avoid excessive transportation costs.Currently, it is estimated that more than 20 thousand hector liter of ethyl alcohol per annum is used in Ethiopia. Here, this figure is taken as a base for the future demand projection. And, in line with the economic growth, it is also assumed that for the coming ten years the annual utilization of ethanol will increase at 10 % per annum. Based on these assumptions, the future demand for ethyl alcohol is projected as follows.
TABLE 3.1
PROJECTION OF DEMAND FOR ETHANOL
These products are produced in different consumer centers and distributed regional or local markets. The liquor market in the Amhara region can justify the establishment of a liquor factory in the region. This factory will require alcohol as one of the major inputs. To supply the liquor factory with the required amount of alcohol, a factory that will refine molasses to produce alcohol will be needed. The raw material- molasses will be transported in big containers to the factory site to be used as input for the alcohol factory. The remaining part of the molasses will be used to produce animal feed which is in short supply in the region. Molasses for the alcohol factory will be transported from the existing factories until such a time that the Amhara Region establishes its own factory. The alcohol to be produced will not only used to make liquor; it will also be used for other purposes in health care institutions, barber shops, beauty salons, etc.
3 Source of Raw material: The main raw materials are molasses, sulphuric acid and nutritive salts (ammonia phosphate). For every 100 liters of alcohol distilled about 1.5 kgs of sulphuric acid and 0.35kg. of nutritive salts are required. The acids will be imported and the molasses will be obtained from domestic sources.
4 Process and Technology: The process of alcohol production is based on the fermentation of molasses and extracting the alcohol there from by using column distilleries. The molasses is diluted with water and allowed to ferment. From the fermented molasses, the alcohol is finally extracted. The required equipment and facilities include equipment for receiving and diluting molasses, preformentation and fermentation equipment, distillation equipment, storage tanks, steam boiler and electric generating nit, laboratory equipment, truck mounted tanker for transporting the molasses.
Project Profile attached below!!!
5 Estimated Investment: The minimum production level to ensure economic profitability is about 7000 hectoliter of alcohol per year. This requires about 2500 tons of molasses. Estimated investment for this level of production capacity, will be:
Building/shade…. = Birr 2,400,000
Machinery ……….. = Birr 1,300,000
Working capital… = Birr 800,000
Total = Birr 4,500,000
6 Benefits: Similar to other projects.
7 Location: Debre Birhan, Combolcha, Bahir Dar.