BPCL breaks ground on India’s first commercial 2G ethanol plant

In India, the Business Standard reports that Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s $134.8 million 30 million liter per year second-generation ethanol plant in Odisha could be commissioned by the end of 2020 following groundbreaking on Wednesday. The facility will use 200,000 metric tons of rice straw as feedstock annually and uses a zero-liquid discharge technology that recycles all water back into the production processes. Of the 12 similar 2G ethanol plants proposed around the country, the Odisha facility is the first to break ground.