Praj Industries forays into renewable chemicals and materials market

Mumbai: Biotech process engineering company, Praj Industries has forayed into the global renewable chemicals and materials (RCM) market through its newly launched Bio-Prism portfolio.

“This will create jobs in the economy, and is environmentally sustainable. Resources are being deployed for this portfolio with separate marketing teams, we will hit the market somewhere in the beginning or mid of 2021,” said company’s executive chairman, Pramod Chaudhari.

He added that Praj is open to exploring newer business models with strategic partners.

“Our stride in RCM is the result of exclusive work in molecular biology, microbiology, fermentation and chemical synthesis,” said Chaudhari.

The company has a Bio-Mobility platform which promotes the use of renewable resources to produce carbon neutral transportation fuel across all modes of mobility. Adding to this segment, the company has forayed into Bio-Prism, with renewable chemicals and materials.

“During this pandemic, usage of single use plastic is increasing. However, with Bio-Prism technology we can make bio plastics, which are safe, biodegradable and will be made using agricultural feed stocks,” Chaudhari added.

Praj’s Bio-Prism portfolio comprises a variety of bio-industrial products, including bio plastics as a priority, along with cellulose-lignin refinery products and specialty products. The company is right now in its R&D stage and will be setting up production facilities for RCM.

“This is part of our annual R&D budgets and we haven’t worked out any separate budget for the same,” said Chaudhari.

Praj has technical collaborations with global organizations and has entered into an overarching MoU with National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) for jointly working on promising project opportunities in RCM space. Praj brings to the table its expertise in technology development, process optimization, integration and scale-up.

"We are now reforming to a new arena. This is the solution to have a sustainable future. For this portfolio, a variety of biomass can be converted into usable products," the company said.