Indian Oil to Arrange Biomass-to-Ethanol Plant in Panipat

(Kaplan Herald) The Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) would initiate production of second generation ethanol by utilizing surplus crop residues and other biomass as feedstock at Baoli village in Panipat district. The capacity of the proposed plant would be 100 kilolitre (kl) ethanol per day.
Haryana Enterprise Promotion Board that met on Thursday gave approval to offer gram in Baoli to IOCL at prevailing market rates.

The firm has proposed to procure over two lakh tonne rice straw from Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat and Kurukshetra. This would help in curbing the pollution emission to a significant extent by utilising the straw as raw material, which currently is being burnt by the farmers resulting in air pollution.

An state government official said that the project would also help reduce the effort farmers had to undertake for the burning process as the oil company would set up extensive infrastructure for speedy collection of straws so that farmers would not miss out on a crop cycle. Moreover, it would also add on to the farmers‘ income as they would be offered a reasonable price for the straw. The project will also generate direct and indirect employment. READ MORE