At its recent summit on biofuels for the Indian market in New Delhi, Frost & Sullivan selected Nandan Biomatrix Limited and Desmet Ballestra as the recipients of the 2007 Emerging Business Model and Technology Leadership awards, respectively. These awards, says Frost & Sullivan, were presented in recognition of the outstanding work these companies have carried out amidst the uncertainty that prevails in the biofuels market in India.

Commenting on the awards, Ms. Mamta Wadhwa, Director – Chemicals, Materials & Foods Practice, Frost and Sullivan, said, “The latent demand for biofuels in India is more than 3mn MT currently, but the corresponding capacities and the level of production is very low. The emerging domestic industry, both Biodiesel and Bioethanol, faces some key challenges such as – lack of sufficient feedstock, cost viability in comparison to international competition, and limited government guidance. In such a scenario, companies who would be successful in this business in the future need to be early movers who have a right business model that is adopted to the local influencing factors. Companies like Nandan Biomatrix and Desmet Ballestra according to us would be the front runners in this industry because of this initiative.”

Nandan’s efforts have been focused on creating a business model that aims at providing a one-stop solution for quality biofuels through an integrated approach. When the fledgling biofuels industry in India is at crossroads due to strategic issues concerning feedstock availability for a sustained supply of biodiesel, Nandan Biomatrix has spearheaded cultivation of Jatropha Curcas, the potential solution to biodiesel manufacturing in India.

On the technology front, Desmet Ballestra has been designing and supplying world class multiple feedstock biodiesel plants tailor-made to the requirements of the Indian market, thus capturing a larger market share. Desmet Ballestra is presently designing and supplying multi feedstock biodiesel production plants of international specifications, sized in a wide range of production capacities ranging from 50,000 up to 300,000 Tons/annum. The technology provided by Desmet Ballestra has been well received by the Indian Biodiesel industry. Key Indian players such as Naturol Bioenergy (100,000 Tons/annum), Cleancities Biodiesel India Ltd. (250,000 Tons/annum), Emami Biotech, and Universal Biofuels have selected Desmet as their technology provider of choice.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Kamalesh Kapadia, Vice President, said, “Desmet Ballestra started the development of the Methyl ester Technology in the early eighties through an intensive R&D program, mainly finalized to the production of a convenient raw material for the surfactant production as alternative to LAB and fatty alcohol.”

He added, “As a logical consequence of the deep experience acquired in the esterification of surfactant intermediate products, Desmet Ballestra has developed a continuous transesterification process to produce Diesel-fuel substitutes (BIODIESEL) starting from a wide range of vegetable oils of various purity (crude/neutral/refined), including exhaust and “fried” oil from edible/food applications without the need for a full refining step up-stream. The flexibility allows using raw material cheaper than traditional processes based only on refined oils.”

To choose the recipient of these awards, the Frost & Sullivan’s methodology for determining award recipients are uniform. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry. The competitors are then compared and ranked. Specific criteria are used to ascertain the final competitor ranking in each industry. For technology awards, the technologies and research projects are compared using customer base demands. In addition, factors such as feasibility of product launch, likelihood of customer acceptance and acceptance rates, and estimated time to market are taken into consideration.

When asked to comment on Nandan’s unique strengths, Mr. B. Jaya Kumar, Director (Technical) said, “Nandan is looking at the model from a Bio Refinery concept with R&D as the backdrop for various by-product developments and hence we are confident that we can win over the competition anticipated in future.” In light of the recent developments that have taken shape in the Biofuels industry, Mr. Jaya Kumar further commented, “The significant challenge for the Biodiesel industry is to develop the large catchment areas and manage production of seeds in a sustainable way. On the other hand, the opportunity is very much obvious since Biodiesel is one such commodity wherein the demand can never be met with, since the demand for green energy is high and shall rise higher with multiple benefits.”

---

Share this article: