|
Bio fuels
Tata Chemicals' biofuels business has grown out of its extensive
expertise in chemicals manufacturing, the agriculture and
crop-nutrition space, and its research capability through
the Innovation Centre. Its product portfolio includes
The business is currently focused on working with sustainably
grown feedstock for first generation bioethanol and biodiesel.
The bioethanol plant, coming up in Nanded, Maharashtra, will
be a 30KL/day facility using sweet sorghum as feedstock for
bioethanol, and sweet sorghum bagasse as fuel for generating
power. Sweet sorghum which contains 10-12 per cent sugar content
can be crushed and processed like sugar cane and has the added
advantages of reaching maturity within a 120-day period and
requires only one-third quantity of water for cultivation.
For biodiesel, the company is currently focused on identifying,
developing and cultivating superior varieties of jatropha
as feedstock. TCL has also recently acquired an equity stake
in JOil (Singapore), a jatropha seedling company founded by
Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, that will set up tissue
culture labs in India and other locations to develop jatropha
seedlings using micro-propagation techniques. Tata Chemicals
will also have exclusive marketing rights for JOil’s
jatropha seedlings in India and East Africa.
Apart from this, the company is actively involved in biofuels
research. TCL's Innovation Centre is working on advanced technologies
including second generation biofuels, technology for better
processing of feedstock and on by-products. TCL is a part
of ICRISAT’s Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Research Consortium
(SSERC).
|
