BPCL to commission 2G ethanol plant in Odisha by December 2020

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) plans to commission its second generation (2G) ethanol bio-refinery at Odisha’s Bargarh district by December 2020.

The project will see an investment of Rs. 10-bn and the foundation stone was laid on October 10 by Odisha governor Mr. Ganeshi Lal and Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan.

“We have the mandate to complete the mechanical commissioning of the project by December 2020 and commercial production will follow immediately. The bio-refinery will have a capacity to produce 30 million litres of the fuel grade ethanol annually using rice straw as feedstock and the ethanol produced from the plant will be blended with petrol,” said Mr. Sanjeeb Paul, Chief General Manager, BPCL.

“The refinery will come up on 58-acres of land at Bargarh and we have got the environmental clearance for it,” he added.

About 12 such bio-refineries are proposed in different states in the country. Odisha is the first state where the construction of the project is going to start.

The Bargarh bio-refinery will utilize about 0.2-mtpa of rice straw as feedstock, which will be sourced from nearby locations like Bhatti, Ambabhona, Attabira, Sohela, Burla, Lakhanpur etc.

The plant is based on a zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) technology where all the water will be recycled back into the plant.