Vishwaraj Sugar Industries (VSIL) will make an investment of Rs 250 crore to set up a new ethanol plant in Karnataka.
At present, VSIL has a sugarcane crushing capacity of 11,000 tpd, distillery capacity of one lakh lpd, co-generation capacity of 36.4 MW, and vinegar manufacturing capacity of 70,000 lpd.
The company announced plans to set up a greenfield ethanol production facility, having a capacity of 2.5 lakh lpd, within 80 km from the existing factory in the Belagavi district.
The company has already acquired 110-acre land for this plant. The estimated project investment is Rs 250 crore and the first full year of operation of this facility will be FY24.
Moreover, the company plans to set up a brownfield ethanol production with a capacity of 1.5 lakh lpd.
The expansion, scheduled to be completed by November 2023, is driven by technological upgradation. It is filing a patent to that effect. This will increase the overall ethanol production capacity to 2.5 lakh lpd.
With both greenfield and brownfield expansion, the total ethanol capacity will reach at five lakh lpd.
It also plans to ramp up the capacity for ethanol, taking total capacity to 5,00,000 lpd. In the normal course, price realization per ltr of ethanol stands at Rs 62.7 for the ethanol produced from sugarcane syrup, and Rs 57 for ethanol produced from molasses. But in the case of pharma-grade ethanol, the price realization goes up to Rs 67 per ltr.
The company has entered into contracts with oil marketing companies for supplying 25 million ltr of ethanol commencing from December 2021, as against the supply of 22.5 million ltr of ethanol during the 12-month period ended in November 2021. VSIL has already commenced a supply of ethanol for the current period.
