GUWAHATI: Numaligarh Refinery Limited has taken a big leap to form a joint venture – Assam Bio-Refinery Pvt Limited (ABRPL) with equity participation of Chempolis Oy of Finland and Fortum 3 B.V. of the Netherlands to build and operate the first of its kind bio refinery in India.
The refinery will generate renewable green fuel, bio-ethanol, other valuable chemicals and green power from bamboo biomass.
The joint venture company incorporated on Tuesday has three partners with major equity holding of 50 per cent by NRL, 28 per cent by Fortum 3 B.V. and 22 per cent by Chempolis Oy, a press statement issued here said.
The agreement in this regard was signed in New Delhi recently by NRL managing director, S.K Barua, Sanjay Aggarwal, the authorised representative of Fortum 3 B.V. and Chempolis Oy chief executive officer, Tomi Honkala in the presence of officials from all the partner companies.
“NRL’s new venture shall produce 62 million litres of bio-ethanol by using around 0.5 million MT bamboo per annum which is going to be a game changer in terms of additional revenue generation for the bamboo farmers through sustainable cultivation, extraction and transportation of bamboo,” NRL managing director, Barua said.
“It is indeed a historic moment for North East to garner first major foreign direct investment for setting up its first bamboo based bio refinery” he said.
Bio-ethanol will be produced from bamboo as feedstock by using 3G Formicobio technology with other valuable chemicals and bio-coal. Bio-coal will be used for production of steam and green power to the bio-refinery.
The central government had recently stepped up its support for production of bio-ethanol, most prominently by means of the new bio-ethanol policy for mandatory blending of ethanol with gasoline up to 10 per cent.
The new bio-ethanol policy aims to spur investments for setting up projects with a total production capacity of 1 billion litres of fuel ethanol every year. It also aims at cutting down the country’s significant energy import dependence as well as meet the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) committed to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
The project can also have a big positive impact on local communities, provide employment opportunities for thousands of people and in the long run help local communities to become self-sustainable and enhance their living standards.