Hindustan Petroleum, Shree Renuka Sugars to jointly set up integrated sugar, ethanol plant
11 Sep 2008
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited signed today a Memorandum of Understanding to set up an integrated sugar and ethanol plant in Maharashtra jointly with Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd, which owns the largest sugar refining capacity in the country.
This tie up for the production of ethanol is part of HPCL's entry into fuel ethanol and bio-diesel.
The union cabinet on 9 October 2007 had mandated a 10-per cent compulsory blending of ethanol with petrol by October 2008, though industry commentators say this deadline is likely to be missed, as oil companies have managed to achieve 5-per cent ethanol blending, till date.
Sharad Pawar had indicated that the government would get to know about the total area under coverage of sugarcane and the availability of cane by November before passing the 10-per cent blending of ethanol.
HPCL has been active in developing bio-diesel and reported having successfully conducted extensive field trials on 25 public transport busses operated by Mumbai's BEST
In July this year it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chhattisgarh government and the Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) to form a JV to undertake Jatropha plantation on over 15,000 hectares of land in the state. it has also signed an MoU with G B Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand for experimental cultivation of Jatropha and allied research.
Integrated sugar producer Shree Renuka Sugars has the largest sugar refining capacity in India of 4000 tpd and a strong focus on power and ethanol. It has two 1,000 tpd refineries integrated with its plants at Munoli and Athani and a 2000 tpd port-based refinery coming up in Haldia. Last month it announced setting up of a new 700,000 tons per annum sugar refinery with a capacity of 2,000 tons per day (tpd) at a cost of Rs350 crore in the Mundra SEZ in Gujarat.
It also owns a majority stake in KBK, an engineering company engaged primarily in providing turnkey solutions in the field of distilleries, ethanol plants and bio-fuels.
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