Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IndianOil), has disclosed that it plans to set up three ethanol plants with the first to be commissioned within the next 24 months. The announcement was made during the company's 59th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Mumbai, India on August 29.
In July 2017, IndianOil and carbon capture and reuse technologies developer LanzaTech Inc., signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) to construct the world’s first refinery off gas-to-ethanol production facility at the Panipat Refinery in Hayrana, India.
At the AGM, Sanjiv Singh, Chairman, IndianOil revealed in his address that “facilities for production of next-generation ethanol to the tune of 33 500 tonnes per annum from refinery off-gases are being set up at Panipat Refinery using LanzaTech technology” with commissioning planned in the next two years and that the company is planning to set up another two ethanol plants.
Singh also remarked that the company’s “alternative energy portfolio” has grown to 202 MW to date with plans to reach 260 MW by 2020. This includes 168 MW of wind-power projects in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and 34 MW of solar energy. Retail outlet solarisation has been completed in nearly 11 000 outlets out of the 27 200, with an installed capacity of 44 MW, and IndianOil is “expediting implementation of solarisation” in the remaining retail outlets.
In addition, he said that the company is pursuing several alternative fuels and horizon technologies “vigorously and in detail”, leveraging on its R&D expertise. Apart from 2G biofuels, Singh mentioned coal gasification, H-CNG, hydrogen fuel cells as well as bio-CNG, an alternative with “high potential”, especially in areas where gas pipelines are not viable.
