(BS)
With the ministry of petroleum and natural gas betting big on bringing down the import of crude oil through increasing its dependency on bio-fuels, the bio-ethanol industry is itself set to see investments worth about Rs 30,000 crore in next three to four years through 28-second generation bio-ethanol plants.
Out of this, 16 will be from the private sector and another 12 from the public sector. State-run companies like HPCL (four), IOCL (three), BPCL (three), MRPL (one) and Numaligarh refinery (one) are already ready with their roadmap in this regard. On the other hand, private sector companies like CMC Biorefineries and Jab Inogi are coming up with 10 units each, while Chem Polis is set to come up with one unit. A few other private sector companies are also in the process of setting up units. This will help in increasing ethanol blending from 4.3 per cent now to 8 to 10 per cent in 2020-21. India’s bio-ethanol programme got a push after Dharmendra Pradhan took charge as the petroleum minister.
