HPCL to set up Bio-refinery Plant in Punjab

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) has planned to invest more than Rs 1,400 crores in the construction of a Second Generation (2G) bio-refinery facility in Punjab's Bathinda.

The 2G bio-refinery is intended to use paddy straw to produce ethanol for blending with gasoline under the Central Government's Ethanol Blending Program.

The Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjacent Areas (CAQM) is also monitoring the plant's progress, and the Commission has visited the plant premises in Bathinda and evaluated the progress with the CMD, HPCL, and District Administration, Bathinda.

When the facility is operating at full capacity, the designed production capacity of this 2G ethanol plant is 100 Kilo Litre (KL) Ethanol/day, and 570 MT of paddy straw would be used each day (2,00,000 MT annually). This season, around 1 lakh MT of biomass will be purchased for use as feedstock for the new 2G ethanol plant, which is projected to be operational by the end of the year.

The plant has already begun biomass procurement, which is likely to intensify in the coming days. HPCL has been working with the Punjab State Government, the District Administration, and the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) to simplify and resolve procurement concerns. For the procurement of paddy straw, agreements have been reached with Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Bathinda and surrounding areas. Over 23,000 MT of paddy straw has already been collected.

This plant will drastically reduce cases of paddy straw burning in Punjab, particularly in the Bathinda District, this year and in the years to come.

The impact is already visible: from September 15 to November 1 this year, total paddy stubble burning cases in Bathinda fell to 294 from 880 in 2022.

News by Rahul Yelligetti