India approves $1.68B in soft loans for 185 molasses-based standalone ethanol plants

In India, the Press Trust of India reports the Food Ministry has approved up to $1.68 billion in soft loans for 185 sugarcane mills and distillers to set up standalone ethanol production, four times the volume of loans approved under the program in the past two years. Once installed, the new projects represent an increase of nearly 4.7 billion liters of additional ethanol production capacity from molasses. The government is also looking at how to promote ethanol production from surplus rice and corn.