State-owned Indian Oil Corp plans to build the world's first refinery off-gas-to-bioethanol plant 

at  its  Panipat refinery in the third quarter of fiscal 2018-2019, running from April to March, IO

C said in an emailed reply late Monday. 

The plant was expected to be complete by the third quarter of fiscal 2019-2020, IOC added. 

IOC and LanzaTech, a carbon recycling company, signed a statement of intent to build the 40 

million   liters/year  (35,000 mt/year)  plant  at  IOC's  15 million mt/year (300,000 b/d) Panipat 

refinery. 

The ethanol produced from the plant will be blended with gasoline, and this will help IOC meet 

its ethanol blending mandate. 

As  part  of its commitment to the Paris Agreement, India plans to reduce its carbon emissions 

per unit of GDP by 33% from 2005 levels. 

Conversion  of  off-gas  to  ethanol  consumes  CO2  present in these gases, and the ethanol 

produced  is  expected  to  cut  emissions  by  more  than  70%  compared  with  conventional 

gasoline, IOC said. 

India  has  a  10%  ethanol  blending  mandate  in  place.  As  it  does not allow imports of fuel 

ethanol, the blending rate largely depends on the availability of sugarcane. 

In  2016,  India's  fuel  ethanol  production  was  estimated  at 1,150 million liters, according to 

Platts Kingsman data, resulting in an actual blending rate of around 4.07%.