Pune, India, May 2017 – Mr. Nitin Gadkari, India's Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, inaugurated Praj's cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant near Pune, India on 7th May 2017. It is India's first integrated bio-refinery, built to showcase Praj's cutting-edge proprietary process technology to produce ethanol from agricultural waste.

The demonstration plant has the capacity to produce 1 million liters of ethanol annually from a variety of biomass such as rice and wheat straw, cotton stalks, sugarcane trash, bagasse, corn cobs and stover. Backed by its expertise and experience of well integrated 1st generation technologies, Praj is confident that their 2nd generation ethanol technology will produce ethanol at the lowest cost and GHG emissions. Praj's advance technology platform enables them to expand its technology portfolio to other renewable fuels and chemicals.

Praj, a company known for technologies which have continued to drive down GHG emissions as well as improve business sustainability significantly in 1st generation ethanol space, expects its 2nd generation ethanol technology to be a trailblazer in the industry. Praj has invested close to USD 30 million for the development of cellulosic ethanol technology over the period of last seven years from its internal accruals. Praj has already signed MoUs with Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd to be their technology partners for certain projects in India.

In the first phase, about 10 to 12 projects, based on 2nd Generation ethanol technology are being planned across the country, each with a capital outlay of approximately USD 100 million and average capacity of 100,000 liters of ethanol per day. Mr. Pramod Chaudhari, Executive Chairman, Praj said, "This technology has great potential to boost to rural economy, create employment and help improve sustainability significantly."