Hindustan Petroleum Corporation will set up a Second Generation (2G) bio-refinery plant at Bathinda, Punjab at a cost of more than Rs 1,400 crore. The 2G bio-refinery is designed to utilize paddy straw for the production of ethanol for blending with petrol under the Ethanol Blending Program (EBP) of the Central government. The progress of setting up the plant is also being monitored by the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM).
The designed production capacity of this 2G ethanol plant is 100 kilo litre (KL) ethanol/ day and for this purpose, 570 MT of paddy straw would be utilized per day (2,00,000 MT annually), when the plant operates at its full capacity. Approx. a lakh MT biomass will be procured in this season for use as feedstock for the upcoming 2G ethanol plant which is expected to be commissioned by the year end.
The plant has already commenced procurement of biomass and procurement is likely to be expedited in the next few days, for which HPCL has been coordinating with State Government of Punjab, District Administration and Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA). Also, agreements with Self Help Groups (SHGs) of Bathinda and nearby areas are in place for paddy straw. More than 23,000 MT of paddy straw has already been aggregated.
Further, the plant will reduce straw burning instances in Punjab, especially in Bathinda district, as evidenced for the period 15 September, 2023 to 1 November, 2023 when the total paddy stubble burning cases in Bathinda have come down to 294 as against 880 in 2022.
