NRL and Chempolis sign agreement in Finland to set up bio-refinery in NE

Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), a subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum, today signed Partnership Agreement with Chempolis Ltd, a Finland based bio-refining technology corporation. Both the Indian and Finnish companies have agreed to jointly partner to build a “world class” bio-refinery using Chempolisformicobio™ technology in North-East India for producing bioethanol with co-production of furfural and acetic acid from locally available cellulosic biomass. The signing took place in Finland the presence of visiting Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and President of Finland Sauli Niinistö.

According to the agreement, both the parties would set up the biorefinery utilising Chempolis’ formicobio™ technology, using bamboo as main biomass which is abundantly available in the state of Assam and North-East India. Project implementation is expected to take approximately 2.5 years, a NRL press release stated.

“This agreement is one important step to approach the National Policy on Bio-fuels announced by the government of India in 2009 that targets 20 per cent blending of bio fuels in diesel and petrol by 2017.” says Pasi Rousu, president Chempolis Asia-Pacific.

Navin Singhania, president of Chempolis India, said: “Bamboo is an important raw material in North-East region of India accounting 66 per cent of the country’s bamboo resources. This agreement aiming at utilisation of bamboo is completely in line with objectives of India. For NRL production of fuel grade ethanol will result in substantial savings, in addition, this project is expected to have minimal carbon footprint.”

P Padmanabhan, managing director of NRL said: “This project would enable cultivation of bamboo on a commercially sustainable basis and would boost rural economy of the region.”