Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) signed a contract with Fars Engineering Research Center, affiliated with Agricultural Jihad Ministry, to produce ethanol from sugarcane bagasse for the first time in Iran. The produced ethanol will be used in Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-Industry Company.

Mehrdad Sabbaghi, the deputy IDRO director for developing modern industries, announced that implementing the plan for establishing an ethanol production unit using bagasse with the capacity of 10,000 liters, which is among important projects in the field of biotechnology in IDRO, has been planned as a 10-month contract and Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-Industry Company will produce bioethanol according to the contract.

Producing renewable and biofuel as the replacement for fossil fuel will have great benefits for the country’s industry and economy, he stressed.

Sabbaghi added that that the produced bioethanol can be added by 15 percent with gasoline without any change in car engines.

The deputy IDRO director went on to say that using bioethanol will have many positive effects on the environment, such as reducing pollutants. Meanwhile, implementing the plan in a larger scale will produce added-value products from agricultural waste and create many job opportunities in Khuzestan Province and the whole country, as well.

It should be noted that the technology of producing ethanol from sugarcane bagasse has been attained and indigenized under the support of Industrial Development and Renovation Organization, Industries and Mines Ministry, and the presidential office for scientific and research affairs, by Iranian experts for the first time in the country.