The Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) is in the process of setting up South India’s only 2G ethanol plant at Hanagawadi in Davanagere district. This is in line with the Union Government’s roadmap to set up 12 such units in the country.
The new biofuel policy of 2018 had set a target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% blending of biodiesel to be achieved by 2030. According to sources, work on the 47-acre plant will begin within the next three months and will be commissioned by March 2023.
The Rs 1,300 core plant will produce biofuel from 2G ethanol produced from maize stalk, maize combs, cotton stalk, sugarcane waste, coconut fronds and paddy stalk. The new unit will produce 60,000 kilolitres of ethanol each day by using 250-350 tonnes of agricultural waste. Further, the ash residue produced at the unit will also be used in cement and brick industries and agricultural fields.
Along with this, MRPL is also planning to start production of bio-jet and bio-CNG for the aviation sector and CNG vehicles, respectively. With the first generation ethanol drawn from sugarcane molasses not sufficient to meet the demands of the biofuel plants, the government decided to use 2G ethanol by adopting additional technology.
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