Summary:
GUWAHATI: Public sector oil and marketing company in the state, Numaligarh Refinery Limited on Wednesday signed an MoU with Manipur government to source bamboo for its upcoming bio-refinery at Numaligarh. NRL has also joined hands with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation UNIDO ) to develop bamboo clusters in all the northeastern states. The plant shall have capacity to process 300 TMT of bamboo (bone dry) and shall produce 49 TMT of ethanol together with associated platform chemicals. Besides ethanol, the bio-refinery will also produce furfural, acetic acid and bio-coal. "It will also enable setting up of bamboo processing clusters in the state of Manipur, which will ultimately help the farmers to promote bamboo plantation and processing for value addition along with providing large scale sustainable employment opportunities for such farmers..