Renuka to set up JV ethanol unit with HPCL

India’s Shree Renuka Sugars is looking to set up an integrated sugar-cum-ethanol plant with oil marketing company Hindustan Petroleum Corp. (HPCL) in Maharashtra. This would be the first such tie-up between a sugar and a petroleum company in India. Renuka will hold 76% in the joint venture (JV) and state-owned HPCL 24%. “It will be a flexible unit, where we can produce up to 50% ethanol and the rest can be sugar. We are renewing the 2008 memorandum of understanding (MoU) with HPCL. The project had been delayed, but we are working on it now,” said Narendra Murkumbi, Renuka’s managing director. (September 7, 2010)