“Our technology to produce ethanol or SAF has a carbon footprint 1/50th of conventional methods” – SSV Ramakumar, AM Green

1. AM GREEN has earned quite a name in green energy segment, could you give a deeper insight into the company?

SSV Ramakumar: AM GREEN is a group company under wider umbrella of Greenko – a renewable energy company having assets of solar, wind and hydro. They are into renewable electricity generation that also has one of the world’s largest pumped hydro plant operational; its sole such plant of 1-GW in India operational since last year in Andhra Pradesh. It’s able to store all kinds of electricity. Greenko is essentially a green electron company and promoters Anil Chalamalasetty and Mahesh Kolli are first generation, young and visionary entrepreneurs who have started a new vertical called AM GREEN – which means green molecule – the idea is that the green electron, which is generated by one of its own companies will be converted into all kinds of green molecules – including biofuels, biochemicals & sustainable pulp.

2. We have been hearing a lot about your green ammonia project. When do we expect its commissioning?

SSV Ramakumar: So, under the green umbrella, now we have the flagship project of 1-million metric tons of green ammonia which is in very advanced stage of commissioning on the east coast of India – Kakinada. The project is expected to be completed in 2028 and this is the lone green ammonia project in the entire country now. Many green ammonia projects were announced later that are in different stages like planning, execution etc. The promoters don’t want to stop at Kakinada. Kakinada has a great advantage. We acquired an old fertilizer company and are furnishing it into an ammonia plant. Hence, it’s a brownfield unit. The company’s backdoor opens into the Kakinada port.

Our green ammonia that will be produced is already certified with low carbon credentials by international certification bodies and it’s fit to be exported to European markets where carbon footprint criteria is very important. We have already got two very big offshore contracts; with German major called Uniper and Japan’s JERA. Few more are invited. The promoters’ vision is to build four more such plants of 1-MMT each. The very next plant which is in very advanced stage of planning, is in Tuticorin port.

3. Could you shed some light on Kakinada’s green hydrogen project?

SSV Ramakumar: Green Hydrogen is the key ingredient for producing green ammonia. At Kakinada plant, the country’s biggest green hydrogen plant of 640 MW is being developed. We have done an MoU with Belgian firm John Cockerill to make a JV for electrolyser manufacturing in India. We can’t bring cost efficiency with imported electrolysers. We are building 2-GW electrolyser assembly line in Kakinada. Then green electricity must be available round the clock and our pumped-hydro project provides us with that.

4. What other green businesses are you looking to venture into?

SSV Ramakumar: The second vertical of AM GREEN is in line with our vision in converting green electron into green molecule. We have acquired a Finland based company called Chempolis whose technology converts all agri-residues into green molecules – ethanol, lignin, bio-chemicals etc. The technology is unique compared to other similar technologies. World’s first bamboo-to-ethanol plant in Numaligarh Refinery in Assam, was constructed based on this Finnish technology. So, AM GREEN’s vision is to replicate at least five more refineries of 5-MMT of any kind of biomass into value added green products that will find good markets in Europe.

5. How do you see your green energy products competing in India’s highly price-sensitive market?

SSV Ramakumar: Naturally, any green molecule is little costlier compared to fossil molecules. When economies of scale come, there will be some kind of price parity. Bioethanol or SAF – when produced through the second generation route with sugarcane or foodgrains in India – have carbon footprints 50 times more than what our technology that is going to produce. In comparison to gasoline, India’s first generation ethanol’s carbon footprint is about 55. Our technology produced ethanol from energy crops or agricultural residues will have a carbon footprint of just five (05). Our Finnish technology is capable to convert 23 agri-residues including rice straw, wheat straw, cotton straw, bagasse etc. into green molecules.

6. Could you tell us more about the upcoming projects and segments you are planning?

SSV Ramakumar: In biofuels, we are at an advanced stage of building a greenfield unit of a nameplate capacity of 2.5 lakh MT; most likely to come up in Madhya Pradesh. We will not just make ethanol but value added products in this plant.

Our technology produces lignin which is the hardest substance of any biomass and its rich source of oil-phenols which again is used to make resins that are used in industrial products. Our lignin based phenols have the capacity to replace resins. Through catalytic process, we can produce hard carbon material from this lignin that can be used in making anodes of batteries, further greening the battery industry by reducing its dependency on the oil industry.

There is one more venture of AM GREEN in aluminum. We have an MoU with the world’s biggest aluminum company Rio Tinto, based in Australia and we will make green aluminum at Kakinada with a capacity of 1 million metric tons.

7. You had discussions with relevant ministers from the Uttar Pradesh Government. How do you see your organisation partnering with the state to advance green fuels?

SSV Ramakumar: We have requested the Uttar Pradesh government to give us wasteland in the state where we would cultivate feedstock for ethanol, SAF, sustainable pulp, other biofuels and help make UP an export hub. We are ready to aggregate land of any kind, and we have already created business models for feedstock cultivation.

We will also do e-SAF production. Some carbon dioxide is released in any kind of biorefinery or biofuel plant. This is called biogenic carbon dioxide and this is not counted as emission because this carbon dioxide is absorbed into land and helps recreate biomass again. It’s circular. We can make methanol from this CO2 with the help of our technology, which again can be transformed into SAF. We have planned to establish such an integrated plant in UP and we have asked for land from the government. Our e-SAF would have the least CO2 footprint that would allow better exports to Europe. Our promoters have signed an MoU with Yogi Adityanath’s government at the last Davos Summit wherein we will make an investment of Rs 6,000 crore in green projects.