Following the successful commissioning of its first bamboo-based biorefinery in Assam, a project inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, green energy company AM Green is planning to set up more such plants in india and abroad for production of ethanol for blending in petrol.
AM Green, founded by Anil Chalamalasetty and Mahesh Kolli, the promoters of the Greenko Group, aims to leverage its proprietary Organosolv technology. It converts feedstocks based on ligno-cellulosic biomass into fuel grade ethanol with low carbon intensity, said S. S. V. Ramakumar, Chief Technology Officer of AM Green and former Director (R&D) at Indian Oil Ltd, in an interview with Business Standard.
Ramkumar was quoted as saying: “At the Assam biorefinery, we have completed the first commissioning run which was very successful, and the first batch of fuel grade ethanol has already been dispatched to Numaligarh Refinery for their use in gasoline blending. In future, AM Green is going to set up more such refineries.”
The company is currently exploring additional locations in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, as well as international sites, for future projects. While specific details about future feedstocks were not disclosed, Ramakumar noted that the Assam facility, developed under Assam Bio Ethanol Pvt Ltd (ABEPL) in partnership with Numaligarh Refinery Ltd, serves as a commercial reference for broader industry adoption, according to the news report.
“We’re already receiving a surge of licensing inquiries globally, including from India,” he added. “AM Green will serve as the global licensor of this technology, and we expect it to gain widespread traction internationally within the next two years.”
Located in Numaligarh, the ABEPL facility is designed to process 300 000 tons of bamboo annually and produce approximately 49 000 tons of bioethanol, 19 000 tons of furfural, 11 000 tons of acetic acid, and 144 gigawatt hours of green energy. The biorefinery leverages Chempolis’ advanced formico® fractionation technology.
Major technical milestones have already been achieved in the project with the successful production of commercial-grade ethanol at 99.6% purity. The achievement marks a significant leap forward in India’s Ethanol Blending Program (EBP) by contributing to the nation’s energy security and climate goals.
