Why in news:

• The state government of Haryana has announced that the biggest ethanol plant in the state will be set up in the Panipat cooperative sugar mill at Dahar village with the capacity of 90 kilo litre per day.

Key Points:

• As per the concerned officials, the decision is intended to improve the financial condition of the cooperative sugar mills in the state.
• The plant would be set up on two mechanisms and ethanol would be prepared in the plant with two types of raw material, including the molasses produced during the crushing season of sugarcane and by the grains ie broken rice, millets and others.
• The plant will produce 90,000 litres of ethanol per day and it would be set up in 15 acres. Its estimated cost is approximately Rs 150 crore. Two separate machines would be set up in the plant – one of 60 kilo litre per day for the processing of molasses being produced by the sugar mill during the sugarcane crushing season and another of 30 KLPD to prepare ethanol from the grains.
• The state government is hopeful that the plant will be instrumental in achieving the state’s targets in yearly crushing season which continues upto April 5 every year.
• The sugar mill produces 3.5 lakh quintal molasses in a crushing season. The ethanol plant would process around 2,000 quintal molasses in a day to produce 90 KLPD ethanol. Ethanol is blended with petrol to reduce dependence on crude oil imports. Several big companies are participating in the tender process and after the allotment of the tender, the plant would likely be set up within a year.