Indian Oil inks pact with Celanese to set up ethanol plant using petcoke

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), which has business interest in the field of refining, marketing, pipelines, petrochemicals, gas, exploration and production, has joined hands with the US-based Celanese Corporation to explore the potential of a joint investment in a fuel ethanol plant to be built in India, based on Celanese’s TCX technology. For this, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by the two companies on October 1, 2014.
 
The project is expected to be located at Paradip in Odisha and will utilise petroleum coke (petcoke) from Indian Oil’s refineries as the key feedstock. Other potential locations will also be investigated.
 
The potential investment would create significant value addition by converting petcoke, a by-product in the refining process, to a low-cost, high-octane and clean-burning gasoline blending component (ethanol) and potentially other co-product petrochemical derivatives. Ethanol, an ideal blending stock for gasoline production, will help in meeting the rising gasoline demand of India. Celanese and IOCL are undertaking this collaborative study that will benefit both companies as well as India as a whole.