Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited’s ethanol plant awaits environmental clearance: MD M Venkatesh

MANGALURU: The Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) is waiting for environmental clearance for setting up a second-generation ethanol plant at Harihar in Davanagere district, said MRPL managing director M Venkatesh. At an interaction programme with media persons at MRPL on Friday, Venkatesh said that the project is expected to be implemented at an estimated cost of about Rs 1,000 crore. The land acquisition for the project is likely to be commissioned in 2025. The proposed project will be capable of producing 60,000 litres of ethanol per day. Agriculture-based residue like corn cob, cotton stalk and other materials will be used as feedstock for production. This will help in reduction of import dependence, and accelerate the promotion of biofuels. Further, the project will help in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and more importantly, it will provide income to farmers,” Venkatesh said. The ethanol produced from the plant will be blended with petrol. The National Policy on Biofuels 2018 is aimed at the accelerated promotion of biofuels, with indicative targets of achieving 20% blending in petrol and 5% blending in diesel, by 2030. The public sector oil marketing companies have attained an average 10% ethanol blending in petrol across the country, he said. Phase IV expansion of MRPLThe phase IV expansion project of the MRPL will focus more on petrochemicals than fuel, Venkatesh said.“Even as the government has been emphasising on natural gas and electric vehicles, MRPL is mulling over focussing more on petrochemicals in the next phase of expansion. The land acquisition process has been initiated for phase IV expansion of the refinery. We have identified about 850 acres for the project in Permude, Kuthethur and nearby areas. Meanwhile, 120 acres have been identified in Muloor and Kandavara, to develop a rehabilitation colony,” he said.