The Rs 80-crore Nandan Biomatrix Ltd, which claims to become the largest biodiesel producer in the next five years with an annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes, will soon be signing an agreement with an overseas private equity green fund for raising $30 million. With the biodiesel policy in place, the company is bullish on the expected increase in demand for biodiesel and hopes to increase its targets for producing the feed stock.
While the company is on the verge of closing the deal, V Bhaskar Rao, MD, said that the fund infusion aims to fund its expansion pan India and overseas as well. Targeting a turnover of Rs 140 crore for this fiscal, the company is looking at a spread of 800,000 hectares in the next five years with 16,000 hectares in each state for producing 2.5 million metric tonnes.
''With a supportive policy in place, we are hopeful of achieving this target of pan-India expansion for feed stock,'' he said. In the next five years, it is targeting an investment of about $200 million in a phased manner. The first phase of investment is about $30 million, apart from its partners and promoters investment.
Its ambitious project stems from seed-to-oil and envisages cultivation across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkand, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Its R&D resource centre on about 1,000 acres is located in Zaheerabad, near Hyderabad and has applied for patents for high seed yield and oil content of jatropha.
Further, through a nanotech process, a technology transfer has been signed with a US-based company and the company plans to create about 93 units with each unit costing about $2 million for the proposed 2.5 million metric tonne production.
The company has initiated projects in Southeast Asia and Africa for jatropha cultivation in catchment areas and establishing the entire value chain for producing biodiesel. It has also signed an MoU with Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institution (MARDI) for developing local varieties of jatropha in Malaysia.
Also, along with IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, Nandan has joined hands to establish a first of its kind Bio Investment Eco Industrial Zone (BIEZ) in the country. BIEZ is a unique platform wherein all the players which include the biofuels and renewable energy, are coming together at a single location to achieve energy efficiency and economies of scale. The basic components of BIEZ are farms, laboratories for mass production of plants along with nursery production centres, demonstration areas, training centres, convention centres, etc. The participants of BIEZ would include farmers, government, R&D institutions and industrial units across the renewable energy value chain and equity investors.
Source: Financial Express