O2Diesel wins India ethanol fuel contract

01 February 2007 08:03  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--The south Indian state of Karnataka on Wednesday announced a deal to initially switch almost half of its diesel-powered buses to a cleaner ethanol-blended biofuel using US-based O2Diesel Corporation’s technology.

 

The first 2,500 buses of the 5,162 fleet will be migrated as part of the state’s plan to cut emissions from vehicles.

 

The Delaware-based company will blend 7.7% ethanol and 0.5% of its patent protected fuel additive to the diesel, the company said.

 

The remaining 2,662 buses will be moved to the cleaner fuel by the fourth quarter of 2007, which O2Diesel claims will make it the largest biodiesel fleet in the world using around 1.2m litres/year.

 

“We are in discussion with the other fleets in Karnataka and it is our goal to convert as much of the state-used 4m litres/year of diesel to our product,” said Ronen Hazarika, managing director of Energenics, O2Diesel’s regional distributor.

 

“We hope to have converted some of the depots belonging to the other three transport corporations in Karnataka by the second quarter of 2007,” he added.

 

Hazarika added that other states in the country had shown interest in similar blends.

By: Matt Kovac
+65 6780 4359

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly