A fourth-generation heir’s bold pivot—from sugar to bioplastics

Saraogi’s plan includes the disintegration of the raw materials from farms to complex candies and lignin. Complex sugars then go to biomalzema.

In addition, it is researching commercially applicable technologies to use the lignin, a complex polymer that gives plants and strengthens.

“In addition to bioplastic, biochemicals and biomalzema are an ocean. Pla is not even the tip of the iceberg,” he said. It is a biologically disintegrated polyester which is derived from renewable sources such as PLA or polyctic acid, corn or sugar cane and used in biologically disintegrated plastic production.

Saraogi’s mathematics is simple: the cost of a carbon element in a sugar molecule is cheaper than crude oil. Now, the industry should find it more effective in how to remove carbon in bio -based feeding stock.

“Everything requires heavy processing. Only the traditional plastic industry had 100 years to do this. We will be more efficient in the future,” he said.

Decadal Vision

But Saraogi’s plan is far from solid. Neither technology nor chemistry are completely cracked. Once the technology has been developed, it will be an important challenge to upgrade to commercial scale and make it economically applicable.

However, the biggest obstacle for Saraogi is to convince the board of the 50 -year -old company. It took “only four and a half years to persuade them to green the bioplastic plant. In an investment La2,850 Crore will be India’s first large -scale PLA factory.

Saraogi plans to position bioplastics produced in the facility as an environmentally friendly alternative to disposable plastics such as bags, pipettes, rods and water bottles.

When Saraogi joined Balrampur Chini Mills about five years ago, he had two tasks to work to maintain farmer relationships and sugar cane; and finding value from products and by -products.

BCML’s bioplastic facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2026. The company estimates that it will reach 80,000 tons of PLA per year within six months after starting operations.

Saraogi has the next 10 -year expansion for the Map of Balrampur Chini Mills. When the PLA plant became operational and rises to full capacity, the company said it would draw plans for a larger unit.

He also took the head of the board of directors to make another investment La65 Crore is to install new equipment that will allow the facility to use cereals as raw materials instead of sugar.

“If the company can reach its full use target within six months, PLA’s 2nd stage is absolutely on cards, according to our opinion,” JM Financial analysts said in a 13 August report. “In such a case, the company may be faster than expected to switch from commodities to special products.”

Wind in favor of her

When the bioplastic facility is finished, Balrampur Chini Mills will benefit from being a global manufacturer with a completely integrated installation – from sugar cane supply to PLA production in one place. Other PLA manufacturers are globally a source of sugar or lactic acid, which is then processed as PLA.

Natureworks LLC in the United States and Thailand, the Totalenenergies Corbion in Thailand, BASF SE in Germany and China in China in the USA and Thailand, among a few companies that scaled PLA.

The total capacity of these companies is approximately 620,000 tons per year and according to JM Financial research, they are plans to increase up to 900,000 tons in the near term. This placed 80,000 tons of BCML in a competitive way against global competitors.

BCML’s bioplastic pressure is behind a few policy tail winds.

The Uttar Pradesh government introduced a bioplastic policy that offers a 50% capital subsidy for seven years after a facility was commissioned. La1,000 crore.

The state government also provides bioplastic producers subsidized loans, 10 -year electrical tax exemption and 10 -year net government goods and services tax repayment. BCML’s first PLA facility in Kumbhi in the province is entitled to this.

In addition, many state government has already banned various types of plastic, and others are in the process of doing so. Himachal Pradesh banned the use of 500 ml of plastic water bottles in hotels and government events. Assam and Delhi banned the use of 250 ml of plastic bottles. In 2022, the Indian government announced that it prohibited the use of disposable plastic throughout the country.

“With positive [government] Existing measures can be replaced by PLA [single-use plastics] And he banned water bottles, JM JM financial analysts said in a report in June.

New generation: not just about bioplastics

The Saraogi family was one of the founders of Balrampur Chini Mills, where he was a modest dress based in Balrampur Uttar Pradesh in 1975. In the following years, the Saraogi family purchased relatives to become the only supporters of India’s second largest and most profitable sugar company.

The Saraogi family is located in Calcutta, but the entire work focuses on East and middle Uttar Pradesh.

Meenakshi Saraogi, the grandmother of the Avantics and the company’s second -generation supporter, was effective for expanding the company to 10 factories from one of one. The farmer supervised his relationships and cane intake. “Nobody can beat me to understand the cane industry,” he said in a 2011 interview to Fortune magazine.

Instead, BCML General Manager’s son Vivek Saraogi took.

In 2015, two restaurants started to operate in his hometown Kalcutta and never planned to participate in the family business. However, when his father asked him if he wanted to join BCML, or whether the family had to look at a professional administration to carry out the job, he rose to the challenge.

In 2019, he joined the BCML and the first business order was to take over from his grandmother farmer’s relations and cane intake.

Beyond sugar and ethanol, the diversity plan is not only related to sustainability – Balrampur Chini Mills is expected to help him partially insolly the captains of the sugar industry.

In a sector where cane, sugar, ethanol and energy prices are intensively regulated by the government, companies leave a few tools to overcome external challenges such as a negative monsoon.

In the last two years, the stagnant prices of ethanol are predominantly on the profitability and stock prices of sugar companies. BCML shares fell more than 16% in BSE this year.

“Analysts in Capital in Capital,” Any potential increase in reed prices without a similar increase in sugar and ethanol price is more difficult on the financials of sugar factories, “said in a report dated August 13th. He said. “In the MSP of sugar (maximum sales price) and the permission of exports will increase emotions as well as financials.”