My Eco Energy (MEE), a young player with experience of close to 2-3 years in retail sale of biofuels in India, is looking to expand its network of fuel stations across nine states in India in FY2016-17.

The company currently operates two fuel stations, which were its pilot project to evaluate the acceptance of biofuel named under its Indizel brand, in Maharashtra.

Revealing the game-plan to Autocar Professional, Santosh Verma, director, MEE, says: “We plan to expand our retail operations in the coming fiscal year by upto 400-500 stations across nine states comprising Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana in the first phase. Our aim is to set up around 4,000 fuel stations across the country in the mid-term.”

MEE’s existing fuel stations, which are in the vicinity of Mumbai-Pune, have recorded an average daily sale of 12,000-12,500 litres of biofuel per day. “We are estimating to achieve a daily sale of 25,000-30,000 litres of our biofuel at each fuel pump we open after a year of its operations,” he adds.

This can be compared to a daily average sale of around 100,000 litres of conventional fuel (petrol and diesel) at any popular fuel station.

What is Indizel?

According to the company, Indizel “is a premium fuel engineered to maximise clean diesel engine performance. It is manufactured by blending three biofuels of different specifications to arrive at an ideal product in terms of quality, price and efficiency. It is the only biofuel in India which complies with domestic and international diesel specifications such as EN590 (Europe), IS 1460 (India, superior emissions than BS VI) and ASTM D975 (US). The biofuel, marketed under the brand Indizel, which is made from recycled and waste vegetable oils and fats, outperforms petroleum diesel in performance, emissions, mileage, price, and value.”

Verma says that Indizel works perfectly in sync with the existing diesel vehicles as Indizel has a high cetane number of 75 and above, which is a quality indicator of diesel fuel. “The customer can also use only Indizel biofuel or even mix it with existing diesel in the vehicle,” he adds.

The company claims to have a combined production and supply capacity of 12.04 MMT or 1,450 crore litres per annum with contract manufacturers located in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The company official says that Indizel offers multiple benefits such as 90 percent reduction in emission of particulate matter, 40-80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases and NOx reduction of upto 14 percent besides its usability in any diesel vehicle, higher fuel efficiency and others.

Verma, who is the co-founder and promoter of MEE along with his partner Sachin Labde, says: “Indizel is always priced around Rs 2-Rs 2.50 cheaper than the prices of conventional diesel fuel. The market is highly price sensitive.”

He explains the case citing the example of a fuel station located on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway which sells diesel around 90 paise cheaper. “This outlet is the largest selling fuel outlet in South Asia only because it sells cheaper diesel,” he concludes.