India’s BPCL plans ethanol plant in Telangana state

MUMBAI (ICIS)–India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) plans to set up an ethanol plant at a cost of Indian Rupees (Rs) 10bn ($134m) in south eastern Telangana state, a state government official said on Wednesday.

The proposed plant will have a capacity of 500,000 litres/day and will use grain as feedstock, the Telangana state government official said.

BPCL has not finalized the location of the ethanol plant as the state government is yet to allocate the land required for the company.

“BPCL has decided to set up this plant in Telangana as the state is currently ethanol deficient and would need a large ethanol plant to meet the government’s blending targets for fuel,” he said.

Once operational, the BPCL plant would help Telangana achieve India’s target of blending 20% ethanol in auto fuel by 2025.

The company is currently in the process of setting up three second generation (2G) ethanol plants with a capacity of 100 kilolitres/day in the three states of Odisha, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh as per the BPCL website.

The 2G plants will use paddy straw and maize stalks as feedstock to produce ethanol, the company said.

BPCL will provide the technology for the project and ethanol production at the Maharashtra plant is expected to begin around 2023.

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