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R. Balaji

Gasohol programme may cover entire State

Chennai , Oct. 18

Sugar mills in Tamil Nadu have submitted bids for supplying ethanol to the oil companies for the gasohol programme, which is expected to cover the entire State.

The supply of ethanol-blended petrol, gasohol, is set to take off across the State with the Tamil Nadu Government giving the go ahead to sugar mills to supply 5.5 crore litres ethanol a year to enable the oil companies supply 5 per cent ethanol-blended petrol.

Industry sources say this time the programme is expected to sustain as it is a three-year tender with enough ethanol supplies being tied up to supply for the entire State.

According to industry sources, initially, the five sugar mills which earlier supplied ethanol would continue to supply under the current tender. These are: Thiru Arooran Sugars, Dharani Sugars, Rajshree Sugars, Kothari Sugars and Sakthi Sugars.

New entrants

Soon there will be new entrants into the business. EID Parry is setting up a new ethanol production unit at its existing distillery at Nellikuppam, and it is expected to start ethanol supplies from April 2007. The unit will have a capacity to produce about 45 kilolitres ethanol a day.

Also, two cooperative sugar mills are setting up ethanol units and are expected to start ethanol supply from July 2007.

The sugar mills, according to industry sources, have bid at a base price of Rs 23 a litre against the earlier price of Rs 18.75.

Till now gasohol supply was restricted to a few districts — Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Tuticorin, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Dindigul, Coimbatore, Erode and the Nilgiris — because of concerns of possible alcohol shortage to meet the requirement of potable alcohol for consumption and industrial users.

But sugar mills are facing a bumper crop season. In 2005-06, they have crushed about 230 lakh tonnes of sugarcane and in 2006-07, sugarcane production is expected to be in the range of about 250 lakh tonnes. With the additional capacities from the new ethanol plants, the sugar mill representatives say that Tamil Nadu mills would have enough to maintain ethanol and alcohol supply.

More Stories on : Sugar | Non-conventional Energy

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