| "The turnover of the company in the last fiscal was Rs 108 crore," said Pramod Chaudhari, chairman of Praj Industries Limited, on the sidelines of a press conference held in the city. The conference was held to announce the launch of the company's breakthrough technology in production of ethanol from sweet sorghum that will be commercially available from March 2005. |
| "Praj has introduced an innovative processing technology called thermopermeation process that ensures higher extraction of sugar from sorghum stalk, leading to an additional ethanol production of four to five litres per tonne," Chaudhari said. |
| The company has also filed for a patent for this process. Praj already has eight patents on distillery processes and waste-water management. |
| Chaudhari said that the company had tied up with a foreign establishment for the development of the seeds and had spent about Rs 1.2 crore on research. He, however, declined to spell out further details. It expects an output of 20 tonnes per acre with a production of 50-55 litres of ethanol per tonne. |
| "Sweet sorghum is an environment-friendly crop and requires less water and time to cultivate. The Andhra Pradesh government has also evinced interest in this crop," Chaudhari said. |
| "In India it is mandatory to blend five per cent of ethanol with petrol. The optimum blending level is 22 per cent. Japan also has decided to make it mandatory to blend 10 per cent of ethanol with petrol from 2006. Besides, the Kyoto protocol with its focus on environment has given a boost to the ethanol-blended fuel," he said. |
| Besides India, Praj also has offices in Columbia, Thailand, Singapore and UAE. |
| "The office in Sharjah was opened about two months back. We are also planning to set a branch in the west soon," Chaudhari said. Recently, the company contracted an order to design and supply a grain-based distillery for an Australian company. |
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