Praj ind inaugurates R

Pune, Apr 21 (UNI) Praj Industries, a bioprocesses and engineering firm, today inaugurated its research and development centre, Matrix, for Process Development of high energy ethanol blends at a cost of Rs 60 crore, to be utilized in two phases, at Pirangut here.

Talking to mediapersons, Praj Industries Chief Executive Officer Pramod Chaudhari said the innovation centre has achieved innovational breakthrough in non-food biofuels by developing high energy ethanol mixture, having 30 per cent more energy content, which could be directly blended with gasoline.

He noted that for long detractors of ethanol had been claiming that it did not have the equivalent energy content as gasoline.

However, Mr Chaudhari said his team has developed a special micro-organism, which converted simple sugars into high energy ethanol mixture. He said it is successful at the laboratory stage and plans are on to work out with oil marketing companies for commercialisation of the product blend.

He informed that he has also filed two provisional patents in India, for the process as well as for the product recovery.

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