Numaligarh refinery inks MoU to secure feedstock supply for bio-refinery project

The MoU was inked with Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency

To secure feedstock supply for its upcoming bio-refinery project, Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) today inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency (NBDA) for sourcing of 2 lakh tonnes of semi-processed bamboo from Nagaland annually.

The refinery is currently implementing a bio-refinery project in Assam to produce bio-ethanol from available non-food bio-mass feedstock, with technology from Finland based technology provider Chempolis.

“The MoU is on mutually beneficial terms for both the parties and will pave the way for setting up bamboo processing clusters in the state of Nagaland where bamboo grows abundantly and thereby help promote bamboo plantation and setting up primary processing units for bamboo. It will also open up opportunities for large scale sustainable employment for the farmers engaged in bamboo plantation. NRL on its part will be ensured of long term supply of bamboo for its Bio Refinery,” a company press release stated.

The MoU was signed between B Ekka, managing director (marketing and business development) and T Imkonglemba Ao, mission director of NBDA, at Dimapur in Nagaland. “A win-win for both the organisations, the MoU also provides for identification of bamboo catchment areas for plantation and processing by the local communities,” the release added.

Bamboo is one of the major non-food biomass resources available abundantly in Northeast India and is amongst the fastest growing plants.  NBDA is the nodal agency in the state of Nagaland for implementation, execution and planning in the bamboo sector.

National Policy on Bio-fuels announced by Union ministry of new and renewable energy in 2009 sets an indicative target of 20% blending of bio-fuels, both for bio-diesel in Diesel and bio-ethanol in petrol by 2017. Approach of National Policy on Bio-fuels is to promote generation of bio-fuels solely from non-food feed stocks to be raised on degraded or wastelands that are not suited to agriculture, to avoid a possible conflict of fuel vs food security.   

Numaligarh Refinery, which is situated in Golaghat district of Assam is a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Assam government and Oil India Limited (OIL).