India's TCL funds JOil jatropha for biofuel plans

25 November 2008 16:50  [Source: ICIS news]

NEW DELHI (ICIS news)--India’s Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) will invest S$25m ($16.5m) in JOil (Singapore) to secure feedstock for its planned biodiesel venture, the company said on Tuesday.

JOil specialises in jatropha plant seedlings and was set up by Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory (TLL) and other investors in Singapore.

“Through this joint venture, the company would like to access some of the excellent work done by TLL on this plant and make the superior varieties of jatropha available to those interested in its cultivation,” said TCL managing director Homi Khusrokhan in a company statement.

“It also holds great promise for the company’s own biofuels programme,” he said, without disclosing specific details of the S$25m investment.

The venture would also give TCL exclusive marketing rights for JOil’s seedlings in India and East Africa, and a preferential price for seedlings required for its own cultivation of jatropha crops, TCL said.

Jatropha will be TCL’s feedstock of choice for biodiesel and sweet sorghum the feedstock for ethanol, TCL said, adding it had conducted field trials with jatropha seedlings at various locations in India.

TCL said it expected to commission its prototype sorghum-based 30 kilolitres/day ethanol plant early next month at Nanded in Maharashtra state.

The company said its Pune, Maharashtra, innovation centre is developing technology for enzymatic cellulosic conversion of feedstock into bioethanol, as well as a biodiesel process aimed at cleaner and simpler transestrification of vegetable oil.

($1 = S$1.51)

Bookmark Simon Robinson’s Big Biofuels Blog for some independent thinking on biofuels
To discuss issues facing the chemical industry go to ICIS connect

By: Naresh Minocha
+65 6780 4359

< previous article(ICIS Chemical Business podcast November 2, 2009)

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