India's first bamboo-based biorefinery to start operations in March

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL), a subsidiary of explorer Oil India, plans to start ethanol production at its biorefinery in the northeastern state of Assam from March, the company's managing director Bhaskar Phukan said on Tuesday.

India, the world's third biggest consumer and importer of oil, is aiming to reduce its crude oil consumption by switching to sustainable alternatives such as bio fuels. The country plans to double the mixing of ethanol with gasoline to 20% by 2025.

The Assam biorefinery - which cost NRL and its Finnish partners Chempolis and Fortum 40 billion rupees - is India's first to use bamboo as feedstock and is expected to annually produce 50,000 tonnes of ethanol, 16,000 tonnes of furfural and 11000 tonnes acetic acid.

Furfural is used for binding components such as adhesive. India's northeastern region is rich with bamboo cultivation.

NRL has a 50% stake in the project.

"There are no buyers of bamboo in the region as paper mills have closed down. So plenty of bamboo is available," Phukan said at an industry event.

He also said company would get the necessary certificates to be able to export furfural to the European markets after meeting local demand.

"We are exploring smaller size projects in Mizoram and Meghalya... there is a steep scope for cost optimisation in future refineries," he said, without giving a timeline for the new projects.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)