K. Sailendra, Executive Director of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)-Southern region, said the corporation was working on increasing production and storage capacity of ethanol in view with the Centre’s aim to increase use of ethanol-blended petrol.
Mr. Sailendra along with senior authorities visited the compressed biogas (CPG) production plant of the corporation in Namakkal and assessed the production activities.
To be in sync with the government’s goal of E20, blending of ethanol upto 20 % with petrol by 2025, IOC was in the process of increasing its ethanol production and storage infrastructure, he told press persons. IOC was also seeking to produce ethanol from refinery effluent gases in addition to the conventional modes of using agri products and agri residues as feedstocks, he added.
To reduce India’s dependence on imported LPG, the Research and Development Centre had developed solar and photo volatile cookers. Mr. Sailendra said IOC had issued 158 Letters of Intent till date in Tamil Nadu to set up 158 CBG plants with a capacity to produce around 680 tonne of CBG per day.
He said the Namakkal plant had the capacity to produce 15 tonne a day. At present, the plant produced 4.5 tonne of CBG a day along with 0.6 MW of power, processing 250 tonne of feedstock a day. Of the 4.5 tonne of CBG, three tonne was being supplied to industries and 1.5 tonne was being sold through the retail network of five pumps to more than 200 vehicles and four buses, he said.
The above news was originally posted on www.thehindu.com
