Reliance’s New Biofuel Business Model

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TheBioenergySite Latest News

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

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Reliance’s New Biofuel Business Model

INDIA - An Indian company believes it has the answer to the food versus fuels debate.

Reliance Life Sciences (RLS)is currently testing intercropping of jatropha and pongamia (non-edible fuel crops) along with a diverse set of food crops including corn, mango, medicinal plants and vegetables in its research and development farms at Gandhar in Baruch, Gujarat, and Nagothane in Raigad, Maharashtra, according to LiveMint.

“Our model is unique in the sense that it reverses the whole argument of fuel versus food, which the Western world is currently battling with, (as it leads) to fuel with food, with the promotion of food intercrops,” said K.V. Subramaniam, CEO and president of RLS, part of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd or RIL group.

“It’s good that big companies do intercropping and lead by example,” says Pushpito K. Ghosh, director of Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute in Bhavnagar, Gujarat.

However, there are some concerns about jatropha’s toxicity affecting food crops, though there is no scientific evidence for this, he says. Ghosh’s lab pioneered jatropha research in India and is currently developing a “solid jatropha model” with General Motors Corp.

The Reliance group may have scaled down its domestic petroleum retail business but it is ensuring its biofuel reach continues. “The biofuels initiative of Reliance has the larger objectives of contributing to India’s energy security and putting purchasing power in the hands of millions of farmers in India,” says Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of RIL in a statement.

View the LiveMint story by clicking here.

TheBioenergySite News Desk