Bio fuels

The bio fuels business of Tata Chemicals has grown out of its extensive expertise in chemicals manufacturing, its experience in the agriculture and crop-nutrition space, and its research capability through the Innovation Centre at Pune. Currently, the company focuses on bioethanol and biodiesel.

The bioethanol plant in Nanded, Maharashtra, with a capacity of 30KL/day, uses sweet sorghum as feedstock and sweet sorghum bagasse as fuel for generating power. Sweet sorghum contains 10-12 per cent sugar content and can be crushed and processed like sugar cane. It has the added advantages of reaching maturity within a 110-day period and requiring 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. Tata Chemicals 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. The labs will 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 bio fuels research. The Tata Chemicals Innovation Centre is working on advanced technologies including second generation bio fuels, technology for better processing of feedstock and on by-products. The company plans to utilise the Nanded facility as a pilot plant for the research and development of cellulose-based bioethanol and biobutanol. TCL is also a part of ICRISAT's Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Research Consortium.