Fouling in industrial heat exchangers leads to economic penalties. To overcome this problem, eitherrncleaning of heat exchangers or reduction of the scaling is the two possible solutions. But, cleaning of heatrntransferring unit is an expensive exercise. Therefore, this study has been conducted with the objective torndesign and optimize molasses treatment plant to reduce scale formation in ethanol production.rnThe study has been conducted in such a way that, first scale samples collected from Metahara sugarrnfactory ethanol plant distillation column and characterized physically and it is hard scale with anrnaverage thickness of 2.04cm and gray in color which shows that it is the result of crystallization. Inrnaddition to this, it has been characterized chemically to determine its composition and the scale isrn63.87% composed of CaO. Then, to assess cause of this scaling, process water and the raw molasses hasrnbeen characterized for their composition and pH which shows that process water is within a normalrnhardness and pH range. But, the molasses of Metahara sugar factory is with an average of 2.41% CaOrnwhich is abnormally high when compared to world average of 1.5% CaO % molasses. Therefore, thernmain cause of heat transferring units scaling in the plant is the CaO content of the molasses. To overcomernthis problem, treating the molasses with H2SO4 and heat is the best technology. Because, the reaction ofrnCaO with H2SO4 at higher temperature give CaSO4 which is insoluble in water and easily separated byrnsedimentation. Experiments have been conducted with varying influential molasses clarificationrnconditions and 100OC temperature, 4 pH, 50o brix and 2hours retention time have been determined as thernoptimum clarification process conditions. At these optimum conditions 54.43% of the CaO in thernmolasses has been removed. At these process conditions, 1.08CaO% molasses has been obtained which isrntoo low when compared with world average of 1.5CaO% molasses.rnDepending on the optimum conditions determined experimentally and the existing condition of the plant,rnmolasses treatment plant process flow sheet has been proposed and the equipments for clarification plantrnhave been designed in which case most of the equipments can be easily fabricated locally.rnFinally, the plant is financially evaluated and its initial investment cost will be recovered fully within onlyrneight operation months which makes the plant viable.