This story is from November 23, 2017

Numaligarh Refinery Limited signs MoU with Manipur govt to source bamboo for its upcoming bio-refinery

Numaligarh Refinery Limited signs MoU with Manipur govt to source bamboo for its upcoming bio-refinery
GUWAHATI: Public sector oil and marketing company in the state, Numaligarh Refinery Limited on Wednesday signed an MoU with Manipur government to source bamboo for its upcoming bio-refinery at Numaligarh.
NRL has already inked MoUs with Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency (NBDA) and Arunachal Pradesh Bamboo Resources Development Agency (APBRDA) for sourcing of bamboo for the bio-refinery for production of fuel grade ethanol from bamboo, which is available in abundance in the region.

The MoU with Manipur will enable sourcing of 1.5 lakh tonnes per annum of bamboo with a total turnover of more than Rs 30 crore by identifying bamboo catchment areas for primary processing by the communities.
“It will also enable setting up of bamboo processing clusters in the state of Manipur, which will ultimately help the farmers to promote bamboo plantation and processing for value addition along with providing large scale sustainable employment opportunities for such farmers. Possibilities are being explored for availing funds from NABARD for the Bamboo plantation and setting up semi processing units in Manipur,” NRL chief manager (corporate communication) Madhuchanda Adhikari Choudhury said.
The bio-refinery is proposed to be set up by way of a Joint Venture company with 50:50 equity participation of NRL and Chempolis Oy & Associates of Finland at an estimated cost of Rs 950 crores. Besides ethanol, the bio-refinery will also produce furfural, acetic acid and bio-coal. The plant shall have capacity to process 300 TMT of bamboo (bone dry) and shall produce 49 TMT of ethanol together with associated platform chemicals. The feedstock will be sourced primarily from Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.
The bio ethanol so produced would primarily be used to blend NRL petrol as mandated by the National Policy on Bio-fuels, with the surplus to be sold to other oil marketing companies. NRL has also joined hands with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to develop bamboo clusters in all the northeastern states.
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About the Author
Prabin Kalita

Prabin Kalita is a journalist at The Times of India and is currently the Chief of Bureau (northeast). He has been reporting in mainstream Indian national media since 2001. He has been a field journalist reporting gamut of issues from India’s northeastern region and major developments in neighbouring countries like Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Bangladesh concerning India and northeastern region. He has been covering insurgency—internal and cross-border, politics, natural calamities, environment etc. He is a post-graduate in Geological Sciences from Gauhati University.

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