Central government’s push for ethanol and the sugar industry’s warm welcome has seen many engineering firms too riding the wave. Pune-based Regreen Excel Private Limited is one such company which has travelled this wave which has seen them transforming themselves from a consultancy firm to a turn key operator for ethanol plants. Sanjay Desai, chairman and managing director of the company, claimed their eMax technology has allowed them to get a price edge over other players and has ensured more projects their way. The eMax technology results in lower consumption of energy for production of ethanol and also allows for change for feed stock. Since 2014, the Centre has been pushing for increased ethanol blending with fuel. The government has in fact brought forward the 20 per cent blending target to 2023. Given the price advantage of production of ethanol from cane juice or sugar juice, many mills have started diverting substantial amounts of sugar production to produce the fuel additive. In 2020-21, the country had seen production of 302.2 crore litre of ethanol and the blending percentage achieved was 8.1 per cent. This push for ethanol, Desai said, has seen many of the mills going for both brown field and green field plants. Since 2016, Desai’s company has commissioned 95 plants in the country. Balrampur Chini and Ugar Sugar Works are some of the major consumers that the company has catered to. Demand, Desai says, comes from both new consumers as well as existing ones who go for expansion. “Most customers are from the private mills while some from the cooperatives also send in enquiries,” Desai said. Desai said the eMax technology has allowed them to capture 50 per cent of the current ethanol set up in the country. Along with the sugar industry, the company has also commissioned grain-based plants in states which use maize and broken rice for production of the feedstock to produce the fuel additive. “Our technology has caught the eyes of the industry given the fact that it can use two different feedstock and also results in substantial savings in terms of energy,” he said. The last fiscal had seen the company reporting a turnover of Rs 750 crore and this fiscal, the company will cross the Rs 1,000 crore. Desai said they have planned 25 plants which they will commission in the next two years.
