Davangere: A 2G ethanol plant will be set up by the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) at Hanagawadi in Davangere district. The plant will be first of its kind in South India and is in line with the Union Government’s roadmap to set up 12 such units in the country. The plant will be commissioned by March 2023.
The plant will use maize stalk, maize combs, cotton stalk, sugarcane waste, coconut fronds, and paddy stalk to produce biofuel from 2G ethanol plant. The plant has the capacity of producing 60,000 kilolitres of ethanol using 250-350 tonnes of agricultural waste daily. The ash residue will be used to produce cement brick industries.
Recently, the government increased the price of ethanol from C heavy molasses from Rs.43.46 per litre to Rs.43.75 per litre, and the price of ethanol from B heavy molasses hiked from Rs.52.43 per litre to Rs.54.27 per litre. Price of ethanol from sugarcane juice/sugar/sugar syrup route was fixed at 59.48 per litre.
Millers in India are struggling because of unsold stocks. Therefore, the government is focusing on ethanol production to strengthen the financial condition of sugar mills. The Central government has the vision to achieve 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol by 2030 and is moving in the same direction. Experts believe the production of ethanol will aid sugar mills to improve the financial condition as they are struggling with depressed sugar prices, surplus stocks and piling cane arrears.
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