{"id":52762,"date":"2018-05-18T07:20:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T05:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=52762"},"modified":"2018-05-17T13:08:10","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T11:08:10","slug":"chempolis-seals-deal-for-indian-biorefinery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/chempolis-seals-deal-for-indian-biorefinery\/","title":{"rendered":"Chempolis Seals Deal for Indian Biorefinery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biorefining technology company Chempolis, the Finnish energy company Fortum, and Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), a state-owned Indian oil company, have formed a joint venture to construct a biorefinery in the state of Assam in Northeast India.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The joint venture will own the biorefinery. Construction work will begin in the autumn of 2018, with the target date for beginning operations at the site set for the year 2020. The total investment in the new biorefinery is 160 million euros, of which 30 percent is being funded through equity and 70 percent through loans provided by Indian banks. The investment includes the construction of the entire refinery, from the handling of raw materials to the production of final products, as well as a biopower plant.<\/p>\n

The biorefinery will use 300,000 tons of bamboo annually from the vast natural and cultivated bamboo reserves of Northeast India. The plant will produce annually 60 million liters of bioethanol, 19,000 tons of furfural, 11,000 tons of acetic acid, and 144 gigawatt hours of green energy.<\/p>\n

Chempolis is the licensor of the plant\u2019s advanced technology and is providing technical expertise. Fortum\u2019s investment in the joint venture will expand its activities in India to include bio-based products. NRL, which owns 50% of the joint venture, is responsible for the facility\u2019s operations. Fortum\u2019s share of ownership in the joint venture is 28%, and Chempolis\u2019s share is 22%.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur technology is the result of a long process of development, and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to prove its capabilities on a production scale. This project and these major partners create a solid foundation for strong growth and the future of our company,\u201d says Chempolis President and CEO Tomi Honkala.<\/p>\n

The plant\u2019s central processes will be based on Chempolis\u2019s patented formicobio technology. Chempolis\u2019s competitive technological advantage is a higher refining value from biomass, such as a better yield of ethanol as well as clean, marketable by-products, such as furfural and acetic acid. At the same time, the technology offers lower operating costs and, being energy net-positive, is environmentally friendly. Compared to the competition, Chempolis\u2019s technology offers a 30% better cash flow and a significantly shorter payback period.<\/p>\n

\u201cChempolis fractionation technology has huge potential to contribute to climate change mitigation. Technology enables resource efficient processing of biomasses to\u00a0replace fossil or otherwise less sustainable raw materials.\u201d says Fortum Chief Technology Officer Heli Antila.<\/p>\n

The joint venture\u2019s biorefinery will be built in Northeast India in Numaligarh in conjunction with NRL\u2019s oil refinery, which has been operating in the area for 18 years. India\u2019s Ministry of Environment issued an environmental permit for the biorefinery in November 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biorefinery is going to be a game changer in terms of additional revenue generation for the bamboo farmers through sustainable cultivation, extraction and transportation of bamboo. It is indeed a historic moment for India\u2019s North East to garner foreign direct investment for setting up its first Biorefinery\u201d says Mr. S.K. Barua, Managing Director, NRL<\/p>\n

The environmental permitting studies for the plant and the bamboo supply chain were carried out by external experts in the autumn of 2017 according to the standards of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIDO is also participating in the creation of the bamboo supply chain. International environmental and human rights regulations are being upheld in the procurement of bamboo and in the construction and operation of the refinery.<\/p>\n

Special consideration is being made for the sustainable procurement of bamboo from four different Indian states. Fifty-three million tons of bamboo grows in Northeast India, of which 8 million tons is utilized. The raw material required for the biorefinery is approximately 1% of the bamboo growing in the region. The biorefinery will source bamboo from local suppliers, increasing economic wellbeing in the region. The cultivation of bamboo to abate the effects of frequent flooding in the area is also being investigated.<\/p>\n

Chempolis, Fortum, and NRL\u2019s project advances the Indian government\u2019s goal of increasing local bioethanol production and decreasing the import of fossil fuels. The bioethanol produced by the refinery will be used entirely for NRL\u2019s fuel production in Assam.<\/p>\n

The Indian government also aims to improve the economic wellbeing of the farmers and other inhabitants of Assam, which will be accomplished through the well-organized collection of biomass. The biorefinery being constructed by Chempolis, Fortum, and NRL is among the first concrete steps to achieving these goals.<\/p>\n

With the support of the Indian government, the Indian biofuel market is anticipated to expand to 15 billion dollars by 2020. The goal of the Indian government is to increase bioethanol\u2019s share from the current 3.3% to 10% by 2021. The goal for 2030 has been set at 20%. An ethanol content of 10% in gasoline will mean 3,500 million liters of additional annual demand in India. As automobile use continues to grow, accomplishing this goal will require the construction of nearly 100 plants the size of the biorefinery like in Numaligarh.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact<\/h3>\n

Tomi Honkala
\nPresident and CEO, Chempolis
\nTel. +358 40\u00a0591 9504<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About Numaligarh Refinery Limited<\/h3>\n

Numaligarh Refinery Limited is a joint venture of Assam Government (12.35%) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (61.65%), Oil India Limited (26%), established in 1993 and commenced commercial production in 2000. NRL has strong base in North East India.<\/p>\n

About Fortum<\/h3>\n

Fortum is a leading clean-energy company that provides its customers with electricity, heating and cooling as well as smart solutions to improve resource efficiency. Fortum wants to engage our customers and society to join the change for a cleaner world. Fortum employs some 9,000 professionals in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Russia, Poland and India. In 2017, Fortum\u2019s sales were EUR 4.5 billion.<\/p>\n

About Chempolis<\/h3>\n

Chempolis is a Finnish biorefining technology company specialised in providing
\ninnovative and sustainable carbon-neutral biorefining technologies for the
\nbiomass, energy, oil, paper, alcohol, sugar and chemical industries. Our mission is to deliver technologies capable of refining biomass economically into high-quality products while minimizing environmental impacts and maximizing social benefits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More Information<\/h3>\n

Details about the new formicobio-technology to be used in the\u00a0Indian biorefinery<\/a><\/p>\n

Sustainability and environment protection in the biorefinery in India<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biorefining technology company Chempolis, the Finnish energy company Fortum, and Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), a state-owned Indian oil company, have formed a joint venture to construct a biorefinery in the state of Assam in Northeast India. The joint venture will own the biorefinery. Construction work will begin in the autumn of 2018, with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,5831],"supplier":[2303,6150,8023],"class_list":["post-52762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biorefinery","supplier-chempolis-ltd","supplier-fortum-corporation","supplier-numaligarh-refinery-limited"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52762"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=52762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}