Tata Chemicals, India's leading manufacturer of inorganic chemicals, has firmed up an investment of Rs 750 crore in next three to four years to pursue its foray into ethanol. In the beginning, the company would invest Rs 50 crore for the development of a prototype 30 kilolitres/day sorghum-based ethanol project in Nanded district of Maharashtra. It would be commissioned by November this year. The Nanded plant would be sweet sorghum juice based and would have fermentation and distillation system. Sugar beet may also be used a raw material. Tata Chemicals' managing director Homi R Khusrokhan told FE, "The company is developing ethanol plant at Nanded as a pilot project. The company will increase the production capacity at the Nanded plant to 130 kilolitres/day, which entails a total investment of Rs 150 crore. Our plan is to increase the total capacity to 500 kilolitres/day in next three to four years and for that a total investment of Rs 750 crore is required. Tata Chemicals will under similar projects in neighbouring Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh apart from Maharashtra.' He said that the current facility with 30 kilolitres/day would also have a co-generation project with the capacity of 7 mw and the power would be used for captive consumption. After reaching the capacity of 500 kilolitres/day, the company will think of a cogeneration project with a bigger size so that excess power can be supplied. According to Khusrokhan, Nanded, which is the home district of Maharashtra industries minister Ashok Chavan, has been chosen as the region which is suitable for the production of arid sorghum. "As far as sale of ethanol is concerned, initially the company would do it through a tender process. Subsequently, when it would have a total capacity of 500 kilolitres/day, it would enter into marketing tie ups with the oil marketing Companies, Khusrokhan said.