The Study of Sugar Industry Waste Management:

Proposing Viable Alternative to Reduce Industrial Waste

of Processing Sugar

Proposed by:

Achmad Zauzi Rifqi

Table of Contents

Title ......................................................................................................................... 1
Table of Contents .................................................................................................... ii
Preface .................................................................................................................... iii
I. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1
Definition............................................................................................................. 2
1.1 Waste .................................................................................................... 2
1.2 filter cake (Blotong) .............................................................................. 2
1.3 Mushroom Cultivation Medium ........................................................... 2
1.4 Briquettes .............................................................................................. 3
II. Viable Alternative to Reduce Industrial Waste of Processing Sugar .............. 3
2. 1 The prospect of current waste management ............................................. 3
2. 2 The prospect and mechanism of proposed waste management ................ 4
III. Conclusion and Suggestion .......................................................................... 5
3.1 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 5
3.2 Suggestion ................................................................................................ 5

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Preface

First at all, give thanks for God’s love and grace for us.

Thanks to God for helping me and give me chance to finish this paper timely.
And I would like to say thank you to Mr. Masduki as the lecturer that always teaches
us and give much knowledge about how to practice English well.

This paper is the one of English task that composed of practice to writing. I
realized this paper is not perfect. But I hope it can be useful for us. Critics and
suggestion is needed here to make this paper be better.

Hopefully we as a student in “Politeknik LPP Yogyakarta” can work more

profesional by using English as the second language whatever we done. Thank you.

Yogyakarta January 23th,

2014

Author

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I. Introduction

For years, the sugar industries has been perceived as the backbone of rural
economy in some regions of Indonesia. The presence of sugar industries
significantly improves the lives of many villagers, given its contribution in term of
providing large employment opportunity. However, there is a growing concern
among policy maker and environmentalist issue of waste management and safe
waste disposal.

It is widely known that sugar industries produce many by-products. One of

the by-products of sugar refining process is filter cake or more commonly known
by locals as blotong. Until recently, filter cake has not been properly managed. In
fact, sugar factories in the industry usually throw away their unprocessed filter cake
along nearby railways.

The large amount of filter cake disposal is certainly causing major

environmental issue. Due to its sulfuric characteristics, filter cake has a very strong
smell that most people will disturbing. Prolonged exposure may also cause
respiratory problems as well.

From the local community perspective, filter cake are often overlooked
and viewed as a less commercial value product. Local people commonly use the
filter cake for soil fertilizer. Meanwhile, some poor families utilize it as a human
food source. Some types of mushrooms often grows on the nutrient rich waste after
a few times. These mushrooms can be harvested by poor families and eaten.

In fact, filter cake contains a lot of elements that can make them have a higher
economic value if processed further. Some substances contained in the filter cake
includes, among others; fiber, crude protein, coir, sugar, ash, SiO2, CaO, P2O5,
MgO.

Thus, the objective of this paper is to review the potential of sugar industries
by-products and to propose viable alternatives to reduce waste. The author
specifically wants to propose the use of filter cake as mushroom cultivation medium
and briquette.

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Definition

1.1 Waste

Waste is the substance that is not intentionally produced. It is the

residue from the process of raw materials in purification. Ideally, a waste must
be processed and managed before the disposal.

However, there are many factories that dump their waste without being
processed due to economic reason, lack of technological advance or low law
enforcement. The amount of unprocessed waste should be minimized because
it can cause problem for the environment and local community.

1.2 filter cake (Blotong)

Sugarcane purification process separates the juice into clear juice that
rises to the top and goes for manufacture, and mud that collects at the bottom
(Hugot, 1986). Filter cake is the residue from this sugarcane juice process.
The amount of filter cake generated is highly dependent on the carbonation/
sulphitation process.

Filter cake contains substances such as coir, protein, sugar, carbon,

SiO2, CaO, P2O5, and MgO. Filter cake is mainly used for organic soil
fertilizer, but excess mud are often discarded due to the bad smell and
perceived worthlessness. In fact, there are many other alternatives that can be
used to further exploit filter cake and turn them into more useful items.

1.3 Mushroom Cultivation Medium

Mushroom cultivation is one of the more attractive farming type for rural
farmers. The common medium being used is a mixture of wood powder, bran,
cornmeal and lime added with water. The filter cake has similar substances
with the general farming medium and it contains minerals that helps fungi
grow.

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 Another advantage of using filter cake is the the affordability and
availability. Since it is a waste from the sugar factory, it is quite cheap and
available at abundant amount.

1.4 Briquettes

In addition to being used in agricultural production, blotong waste can

also be utilized as solid fuel, similar to charcoal. Quite a large amount of
fibers in blotong help to allow the blotong to be solidified for the manufacture
of solid biofuels. With the abundant availability of blotong and the fact that
it is usually thrown away by the factory, the manufacture of fuel with blotong
raw materials will be able to reduce production costs in addition to helping to
reduce the waste generated by the sugar factory.

II. Viable Alternative to Reduce Industrial Waste of Processing Sugar

2. 1 The prospect of current waste management

The current waste management is very limited, the sugar factories are
often dump their filter cake without being processed first. Other than
causing respiratory problems for the local community in the long run, it also
makes storage problem. The land site that can be used for other purposes,
ended up being used for the location of dumping waste.

The way local community cope with this problem is still very
traditional. Local people mostly use it as organic soil fertilizer and human
food source. If we keep to continue this way of waste management, there
will be too much unprocessed filter cake sitting around waiting to
degradation. The increase of unprocessed waste will disrupt the ecosystem
and local community. Indirectly, it is possible to hurt the company
reputation. The local community will likely to label the
company irresponsible towards environmental issues.

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 Thus, the practise of dumping unprocessed waste actually do not only
harm the community, but also disadvantage the sugar industries that does it.
If the business able to process and manage their by-products, they can avoid
legal and social issues as well as obtain much greater profit.

2. 2 The prospect and mechanism of proposed waste management

The author proposed other use of filter cake that is more sustainable and
mutually beneficial both for the sugar industries and local community. The
abundant amount of the mud can be used for mushroom cultivation medium
as mentioned before. It will be better if the sugar industries conduct some
sort of corporate social responsibility by give entrepreneurial training for
the local mushroom farmers. The training may explain the benefits of using
blotong as medium of mushroom cultivation. Later, the sugar industries will
supply the filter cake to the mushroom farmers.

By doing so, the company will get several benefits at once. The
company is indirectly build a community engagement in which they spread
the message that they are part of the community. It also create a good
reputation and impression about the company. Other than that, they can
reduce the amount of unprocessed waste and less worry about the disposal
site. Perhaps, the company can opt to make agreement on profit sharing with
the local farmers if the mushroom cultivation grow bigger. The prospect of
mushroom cultivation is very promising. Mushroom cultivation requires
short growing period, limited land area and low investment for the initial
capitalization.

Next, another proposed waste management is the utilization of blotong

as briquettes. This will create a self sustain cycle that help make sugar
refinery be more environmentally friendly by not using fossil fuel. Excess
filter cake can be used to make solid biofuel since it is rich with fiber.
Blotong can be solidify and burn easily for long time and reach high
temperature. The chemical composition also mean this will do less pollution

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 than burn coal. This makes it a good alternative to fossil fuel. Recycled filter
cake that is already solid can be burned to boil sugarcane and purify it,
creating more blotong in the process. This means the factory will can buy
less fuel and reduce production cost. If enough blotong briquette was made,
the factory can possibly to independence from fossil fuel.

Another possible approach, the company can teach the local community
to transform excessive blotong into briquettes for their household needs. It
may not bring an economic advantage for the company, but it help the
company to reduce unprocessed waste. They will no longer need to think
about large area of disposal site because they can supply the waste to local
people.

Meanwhile, local people will most likely be delighted and have a

positive attitude towards the sugar company. The use of briquettes is proven
to be cheaper compared to firewood and other existing fuel. It also produced
lower air pollution.

III. Conclusion and Suggestion

3.1 Conclusion

It is very clear that the current mechanism of waste management is far

from adequate and not sustainable. In other words, if we continue the
practise of current waste management thus it will cause future
environmental problems. The proposed waste management is much better
compared to existing waste management practices in term of waste
absorption capacity. In addition, the proposed waste management seems
more positively impactful for the lives of the villagers in rural community.

3.2 Suggestion

To better achieve the goals of sustainable waste management, the sugar

company and local community need to establish a mutual cooperation. The
sugar industry must support the local community through socialization and
entrepreneurial training in managing the waste into highly valuable

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materials. If the local community able to manage the waste, it means that
the sugar company successfully empower the local community and solve
the problem of waste management at the same time.

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