Numaligarh, Feb 17: Assam Bio Ethanol Pvt Ltd (ABEPL) plans to partner with over 30,000 farmers across the Northeast over the next three years to supply bamboo to its second-generation bioethanol plant at Numaligarh in Golaghat district.
The Rs 4,930-crore facility, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2025, is described as the world’s first commercial second-generation bioethanol plant using bamboo as feedstock. The plant has a production capacity of 49,000 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) of ethanol.
According to ABEPL CEO Rupjyoti Hazarika, the plant is currently in its start-up phase due to limited availability of raw materials. Operations are expected to stabilise next week, with plans to gradually ramp up to full production.
Unlike first-generation ethanol plants that use food crops such as sugarcane or maize, the Numaligarh unit uses bamboo and is designed as a zero-waste facility. Trial runs have produced fuel-grade ethanol with 99.7 per cent purity, above the standard 99.5 per cent.
In addition to ethanol, the plant is expected to produce 19,000 tonnes of furfural, 11,000 tonnes of acetic acid, 32,000 tonnes of liquid carbon dioxide, and generate 25 MW of green power annually.
To operate at full capacity, the 43-acre plant will require 5 lakh MTPA of green bamboo sourced from about 12,500 hectares of land, involving the plantation of around 60 lakh saplings. So far, more than 4,200 farmers have registered within a 300-km radius covering 16 districts in Assam, four in Arunachal Pradesh, five in Nagaland and one in Meghalaya.
The company has disbursed Rs 2.4 crore directly to farmers and distributed one lakh bamboo saplings. Most saplings have been provided to tea gardens, which are utilising up to five per cent of their land for non-tea purposes.
At present, bamboo cultivation is being carried out on around 300 hectares of barren and non-agricultural land. Once fully operational, the company expects to become carbon-neutral and emerge as the largest bamboo consumer in the Northeast.
The project is a joint venture of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), Fortum 3 BV, and Chempolis Oy. The initiative is projected to contribute around Rs 200 crore annually to Assam’s rural economy.
