Leading sugar and ethanol producer Shree Renuka Sugars plans to expand its ethanol manufacturing capacity from 720,000 litres/day to 1.4 million litres with an investment of around INR7 billion (US$84.4 million). Atul Chaturvedi, Executive Chairman of the company, said the expansion of ethanol capacity is happening at the company's plants in Athani, Munoli and Avalga in Karnataka. Increased production "will be in place by the last quarter of the current calendar year [i.e. December]," he said. With India setting an ambitious target of blending 20% of petrol with ethanol by 2025, sugar sector majors are betting on expanding the ethanol production capacity in the next three years. As a result, the sector will likely see an investment of about INR100 billion in the coming years. To achieve 20% blending, a capacity of 12 billion litres of ethanol will have to be installed, of which 6.5 billion -7.0 billion litres would be from sugarcane and the rest from corn-based distilleries.
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