On Wednesday, India’s HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd said it would start up a bio-ethanol plant at its Bathinda refinery in northern India as part of efforts to reduce its carbon emissions. The company said that it is in the process of constructing 100,000 tonnes per annum ethanol plant based on agricultural inputs like waste food. As per the media reports, the plant will be operational next year.

HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) is a joint venture between state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Mittal Energy Investments, a Lakshmi N Mittal Company. HMEL owns and operates the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery of 11.3 MMTPA capacity at Bathinda, Punjab. HMEL’s wholly owned subsidiary, HPCL-Mittal Pipelines Limited (HMPL), owns and operates a Single Point Mooring, Crude Oil Terminal and 1017 km cross-country pipeline for transportation of the crude from Mundra, Gujarat, to the refinery at Bathinda.

Notably, India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, has extended the excise tax exemption for biofuels to encourage blending higher proportions of ethanol and vegetable oil components with gasoline and diesel.

Notably, India plans to introduce 20% ethanol blended with gasoline in parts of the country starting next year before rolling it out nationwide in 2025 or 2026.