Punjab is set to come out with a practical solution to the menace of stubble burning with the setting up of a second generation Bioethanol plant at Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda district.Disclosing this, Union Food Processing Minister Mrs. Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the Ethanol plant besides addressing environment issues, would also provide better remuneration to farmers. Mrs Badal said the ethanol plant would use 400 tonnes of agriculture residue per day or 1.28 lacs tonnes of biomass as fuel and shall have a production capacity of around 100 KL per ethanol per day and around 3.20 crores liters of ethanol annually. This would be enough to meet 26 percent of the ethanol requirement of the State, she added.
She said 1200 to 1300 people will get employment through the project and biomass supply chain management, while around 3 lacs farmers will be benefitted with extra income of more than Rs 19.20 cr per annum (at an average biomass rate of Rs 1500 per tonne). The project shall also yield 32000 MTPA of biofertilizers which shall in turn be incorporated into soil for improving soil fertility raising overall farm productivity in the state. Apart from this the plant will also yield Bio-CNG, which can be used as clean cooking fuel and fuel in vehicles. The plant will be yielding 115.20 las kg of Bio CNG per annum.The Bathinda mp said Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) was bringing this capital intensive project to the State at a cost of Rs 600 crore. The second generation ethanol biorefinery shall operate on DBT-ICT, an indigenous technology funded by the Department of Biotechnology.