Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Praj Industries Limited Q2 and H1 FY 2025 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anuj Sonpal from Valorum Advisors. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and a very warm welcome to you all. My name is Anuj Sonpal from Valorum Advisors. We represent the investor relations for Praj Industries Limited. On behalf of the company, I would like to thank you all for participating in the company's earnings conference call for the second quarter and half year ended, first half ended September 30th, 2024 . Before we begin, let me mention a cautionary statement. Some of the statements made in today's earnings conference call may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Such statements are based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Audiences are cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward-looking statements in making any investment decisions.
The purpose of today's earnings conference call is purely to educate and bring awareness about the company's fundamental business and financial quarter under review. Now, let me introduce you to the management participating with us in today's earnings call and hand it over to them for opening remarks. We firstly have with us Mr. Shishir Joshipura, CEO and Managing Director, and we also have Mr. Sachin Raole, Chief Financial Officer and Director of Resources. Without any further delay, I request Mr. Shishir Joshipura to start with his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Anuj. Good day, everyone. I welcome you to Praj Industries earnings call for quarter two and H1 of FY 2025. First, all of you had the opportunity to go through our results for the quarter ended 30th September, 2024 . Let me start today's call with an important development in biopolymer space. Earlier this month, Praj's first of its kind demo facility, also India's first, for biopolymers, was inaugurated by Honorable Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of Science and Technology. This facility showcases our capability in renewable chemicals and materials space. This facility will demonstrate Praj's indigenously developed solutions in the RCM space. This integrated facility houses fermentation, chemical synthesis, separation, and purification sections along with other supporting sections, and is spread over three acres.
This facility showcases production capacities of 100 tons per annum for lactic acid, 60 tons per annum for lactide, which is equal to 55 tons per annum of PLA. Recent announcement by the government and approval to the BioE3 policy for fostering high-performance biomanufacturing is a very, very progressive step in this direction. The BioE3 policy will give boost to innovation-driven R&D and manufacturing, as well as the commercialization of technology. Our demo plant is an important global breakthrough as it opens a completely new dimension in form of renewable chemicals and materials segment. Global economy is witnessing continued challenges arising from unstable geopolitical situations, a relatively tight liquidity, uncertain and volatile energy prices, and changing climate. While some of these events have created a short-term challenge, they have also enhanced the need for accelerating the push for sustainable and renewable energy.
Increasingly, governments are realizing and committing themselves to enhance the share of biofuels in their respective economies. Coming to business performance, along with bioenergy segment that continues to develop positively, our business is growing in multiple dimensions, with healthy order and inquiry inflows from bioenergy, energy transition, services, and engineering verticals from both domestic and international markets in the first half of the year. With several positive developments in the ecosystem, the market, and the market, it augurs well for continued growth journey as we move forward. On the domestic bioenergy business front, in a much-awaited development, the government lifted restrictions on use of cane juice, cane syrup and B-heavy molasses for ethanol production. This has not yet resulted in any significant movement in the market.
Sugar plants are expecting a long-term visibility for the policy to take further investment decisions for setting up ethanol-based, plant, ethanol plant based on these feedstocks. The ethanol producers are also awaiting price revisions for ethanol. The grain-based distilleries are now allowed to purchase up to 2.3 million metric tons of rice from FCI, exclusively for ethanol production. However, the indicative grain price is very high, posing a big challenge on project viability. Several projects are now opting for maize or corn as feedstock of choice, and government has also highlighted its additional focus on enhancing feedstock availability by increasing corn production in the country. Capacity built up in this quarter was completely dominated by starchy feedstock, with 100% share of our order book being from starchy feedstocks for this segment.
With target of 20% ethanol blending with petrol on track, the food ministry has approached the NITI Aayog to prepare a roadmap for 25% blending. This is an encouraging development, which can further drive ethanol demand and translate into significant business opportunity for us. On international bioenergy front. We are witnessing strong inflow of inquiries from Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay for corn ethanol. There are many positive developments from the policy point of view. Brazil has registered Fuel of the Future law that will increase the default blending to 30%, up from 27% currently. This is expected to create a demand for an additional 4 billion liters of ethanol, and we expect starchy feedstock to have a majority share of this additional demand, given the feedstock dynamics in the country. Argentina, Panama, and Paraguay are discussing increased blending mandates, which will result in business opportunity for us.
Africa has announced ethanol for clean cooking initiative that will likely drive ethanol capacity creation in Africa. The world awaits the outcome of the U.S. election, where the market is awaiting clarity on 45Z of the Inflation Reduction Act. We are witnessing increased traction on SAF related projects on ATJ pathway, and expect positive developments in low carbon ethanol demand as well as these as we move forward. India is now the official headquarters of the Global Biofuel Alliance, and we expect significant activities to get underway during COP 29 event in Baku, scheduled early next month. Praj is invited to be part of this event as a leading technology partner. Praj is also invited by the Brazil government to be a part of a dialogue sponsored by them at COP 29. These developments are indicative of Praj's growing technology prowess on the global front.
Our continuous endeavor to help enhance value for our customers and help them win, is leading to increased focus on co-product creation from existing feedstocks. With a view to help starchy feedstock-based projects, we have commissioned a demo plant for production of corn oil at one of our customer's installations. Corn oil is one of the byproducts at the corn-based ethanol plants. This plant can produce four tons per day of corn oil. It is mainly used as a feed for biodiesel and has applications in the paint and poultry industry. Corn oil module will help enhance financial viability of all corn-based ethanol plants. A couple of years ago, we have spoken about a string-of-pearls approach for Praj's growth strategy, enhancing the service business portfolio, which offers solutions across a broad spectrum of one such pearl.
Our services business is now seeing a healthy growth in order book and revenue from both domestic as well as international markets. Biogenic CO2 capture, fermentation process management, operation and maintenance services are increasingly finding higher interest with a healthy inquiry pipeline. Our order book for H1 of FY 2025 is 40% higher than our order book for the entire last year for this segment. On 2G front, IOCL plant recommissioning progress is as per plan. We are working closely with the IOCL team to ensure ramping up of the plant capacity in gradual manner. On the CBG front, the developments are gradual and in positive direction. Several elements of ecosystem are aligning for driving future growth in this industry. We have received our first order for plant exclusively based on Napier grass, as also our first international order for biogas utilization from Philippines.
The inquiry pipeline is developing positively, and we expect it to translate into firm business in the second half of FY 2025. Moving on to engineering business. On the energy transition and climate action front, the process of Bengaluru facility approval by our clients and building up the team is going as planned. We have already received the approvals from four of the leading global EPC companies. As the process of approval and then discussing new order itself is long, we have not seen any major order booking for Praj GenX, though the inquiries are building up meaningfully. Our dialogues with leading solution providers in the ATPS- ETPS space for modularized solutions have progressed well, and we expect them to lead to a positive results in near future. The current expenditure is for building the infrastructure, and the revenue is expected to follow in due course.
Our Zero Liquid Discharge business is also gaining momentum with increasing acceptance of our modularization solution. First of our modularized ZLD plant was installed in a record time of less than a week. Please compare this to a typical time taken at site, which is of the order of six months. Our PHS business is witnessing a very healthy buildup of project pipeline, which we expect will translate into orders as we move to the second half of the year. Overall, we see a positive development for all our business lines. With this, I will now hand over to Sachin for his comments on the financial performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Shishir. Good day, everyone. Let me take you through the financial highlights for the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2024.
The consolidated income from operations stood at INR 8.16 billion in Q2 FY 2025, as compared to 8.82 billion in Q2 of FY 2024. PBT stood at 744 million in quarter two of FY 2025, as compared to 848 million in quarter two of last year. Similarly, profit after tax stood at INR 538 million in quarter two of FY 2025, as compared to 623 million in quarter two of FY 2024. For H1 FY 2025, income from operations was 15.15 billion, as against 16.19 billion in H1 FY 2024. PBT, before exceptional items, stood at 1.53 billion in H1 FY 2025, as against 1.62 billion in H1 FY 2024. PBT after exceptional items stood at INR 1.81 billion.
PAT of INR 1.38 billion in H1 FY 2025, as against INR 1.21 billion in H1 FY 2024. Though the order book is healthy in bioenergy segment, lower pace of execution has impacted the top line in this quarter. Improved contribution margin is on account of softening of raw material prices and favorable sales mix. Export revenue accounted for 27% of Q2 FY 2025. Of the total revenue, 68% is from bioenergy, 24% from engineering, and 8% is from PHS business. The order intake during the quarter was INR 9.21 billion, with 94% from the domestic market. Of the total order intake, 88% came from bioenergy, 6% from engineering, and final 6% from PHS business.
The order backlog as of September 24, 2024, is INR 41.5 billion, comprising of 72% of domestic orders. Let me now explain some of the variances in the numbers. Increase in the employee cost is because of addition of resources in our subsidiary called Praj GenX and services business and normal annual increments. Mark to market of forward contracts resulted in a loss in H1 FY 2025 against the profit for H1 FY 2024. Higher finance costs and depreciation, amortization cost is on account of investment in new facility at Bengaluru of Praj GenX. Cash in hand as on September 30, 2024, is INR 7.51 billion. I now conclude my remarks, and I would like to thank you all for joining us on this call. We would now be happy to discuss any questions, comments, or suggestions you may have.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Good afternoon, sir, and thanks for the opportunity.
Sorry to interrupt, sir. Could you come a bit close to your handset?
Is it better now?
Yes, sir.
Yeah. Good afternoon, sir, and thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the PNL and the balance sheet items. Can you please help us with the CapEx at GenX, which you have capitalized in the first half, and the MTM losses you have booked in Q2 FY 2025?
Yeah. So let me just give an answer for your second question related to MTM loss on Forex. In the last year, H1 2024, we were having the Forex gain, versus in this quarter, we are having Forex loss. It is mainly the mark to market of the forward contracts, and it is not the cash losses which we have booked. It is the situation of when you are doing mark to market of forward contracts as on the reporting date. The forward contracts have shown because of the adverse movement of Euro specifically, not even Euro, even the dollar. It is mainly on account of Euro movement, which has happened in the last week of September. Let me just clarify, actually, this is only a book loss, it is not a cash loss, one.
Two, the movement of the euro has actually reversed again in the first week of October. But for the date as of September, it has resulted into loss on our books. Your first question was related to the CapEx, which we have done on the Praj GenX. Yes, the facility which we are building up in Bengaluru, the facility is actually taken on a lease. As per the accounting standard in the lease, we have to consider the entire lease rentals, which are getting paid out on this facility, has to be capitalized and to be provided in the form of depreciation and interest. The line item on the depreciation and interest is on account of that. If you look at the last six months, our depreciation was in the range of, what? 18-20 crores.
But if you look at for this year, it is for the half year, it has translated into INR 40 crores. Almost INR 22 crores increase in on account of that depreciation, which is mainly coming up because of this GenX facility, which we have put up.
Is it possible to quantify the MTM losses you have booked in Q2 FY 2025? Is it possible?
Hello?
Is it possible to quantify the-
Hello. Are you able to hear us?
Yes, yes, I can.
Okay.
Am I audible?
Yes.
Yes, sir, we can hear you.
Is it possible to quantify the MTM losses, sir, in the Q2?
Sorry to interrupt, sir. I believe the management is unable to hear us.
Hello?
We can hear you, sir.
Mohit, did you hear our answer?
Yes. My question was-
Connected.
Yes, so my only, sir, I think I didn't go get the MTM losses you booked in Q2. Is it possible to quantify that number or not?
... Could you just go a little slow and a little loud, please? If the line's not clear. Sorry for that.
Yeah. No, no issue, sir. My question was: Is it possible to quantify the MTM losses in Q2?
Oh, yes. The total quantum on this MTM losses was INR 10 crores.
10 crores. Thank you, sir.
Yeah.
My last question is, good to see improvement in QOQ order inflow in ethanol business in domestic. But sir, engineering order has declined sequentially. I think you alluded to the fact that GenX is getting ready.
We're not able to hear your question well. Sorry for that. We are not able to hear you well.
Operator, could you please look into this? We are not able to hear Mohit well.
Sorry to interrupt, sir. Moving on to the next question. The next question is from the line of Amit Anwani from-
Hey, no! No, sir, sorry. I said we cannot hear Mohit. Can you please intervene?
We cannot hear him. Can you hear me, sir?
No. Please call back Mr. Mohit. He had a question which we could not hear, so please call him back and see if you can put back in the queue. Okay, we can go ahead with the next question.
As the current participant is not answering, we'll move to the next question. The next question-
Okay.
Is from the line of Aditya Mongia from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, and Shishir, as at the start of the call, as always. I wanted to get your clarity on first things first. See, there is this that gives-
hear you, sir. Aditya, can you please be a little louder? You wanted clarity on what?
Is it any better now?
Can't hear you, sorry. Very, very low.
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Aditya, could you come a bit close to your handset?
Yeah. Okay, I'll try to speak louder. Is this better?
Mm, no, we can hear...
Sir, could you speak again?
Sorry. I think this should be better now. Sorry.
Yeah, this is good. This is good.
Sir, can you hear?
Yes.
Sure. So I'll go ahead with my question. The question that I had was more on this, a recent judgment that's been passed, which gives powers to the states to kind of put taxes on top of industrial alcohol. I wanted to clarify whether there is clarity whether the blending ethanol also is involved inside this judgment or not?
No, that is specifically as it relates to industrial alcohol, and it's more a question as it is to who has the authority between the state and the center, and has no impact at all.
Right. So, ethanol for blending is not classified as industrial alcohol, right? Is that what you are also trying to-
It's different. Differently taken, yes.
That's good to get clarity on. The second thing I wanted to get a sense from you is, on a YoY basis, how much has been the YoY movement in your ordering from 1G ethanol, and how to think through these numbers over the next twelve months or so?
So, what's the question, you said? Movement on what?
Movement on 1G ethanol and the related ordering for the first half of this fiscal, and how to think through this for the next 12-18 months?
Compared to, and you want it in relation to what?
Yeah, essentially, the YY growth trend, sir, is what I'm trying to focus of the past and the future.
September 24th to September-
You want June to September or you want September to September? Just trying to understand, so we answer the right, in the right way.
Hello? Can you hear us? Hello.
Yes, sir. Mr. Aditya, please go ahead with your question.
No, we can't hear Aditya at all.
As there is no response from Mr. Aditya, we'll move on to the next question.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Mohit Kumar from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Mr. Mohit, your line has been unmuted. Go ahead with your question. Mr. Mohit, your line has been unmuted. As there is no response from the participant, we'll move on to the next question. The next question is from the line of Amit Anwani from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, am I audible?
Yes, please. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Thanks for taking my question. First question, sir, you highlighted on the international opportunities in Paraguay, Africa, Brazil. Wanted to understand, are we looking for starchy plants only in these areas, in these geographies? And second, wanted to understand, if you could substantiate on the pipeline, whether value or volume in these geographies which we are looking, and how is the competition, any competing company globally, where we are competing and we have advantage to get orders in these geographies? Yeah.
Okay. So thank you for the question. Yes, so these opportunities are not necessarily all of them are starchy. I think Africa can be a mix between the two, very starchy and sugary. The opportunity in Latin America currently is based on starchy feedstock. Too, because of the way the whole business has evolved in that part of the world, the starchy feedstock has a clear play for people and companies with experience on handling starchy feedstock. Obviously, Raj has got tons of it, so we are able to create a very clear value proposition in those markets around starchy feedstock. As you're aware, we have already commissioned the plant. We are engineering for three more. And I'm sure that as we go forward, you'll probably hear about further developments in these markets as well.
The second thing that is happening is that the governments in these markets are pushing for higher blending percentages. As I mentioned, Brazil has passed a law, which now makes it mandatory for, just as we have E-20, they will now have E-30, up from E-27. 27 to 30 for them is almost a 4 billion liters of annual production. Most of it is likely to come from starchy wheat, so not all of it. And that puts us in a good position because our starchy wheat solutions are finding good traction in these markets.
Sir, any addressable. So are we expecting five, seven plants together from these geographies? Any thoughts on what are the expectations?
As I mentioned, we are already engineering three projects, and as we go through the timeline of the next six months, you will hear more about it.
Right. And on service, if I heard it right, you said H1 is 40% higher than H2 of last year.
That is correct.
Any sense what was the absolute number for H-one? And going forward, what are the expectations with respect to service revenue contribution? Second, from where exactly this is coming, are we focusing, have started focusing this area now, or is there any opportunity which has gathered pace and we have started getting good volumes in service?
So, Amit, we just don't give the segmental kind of a number, but let me tell you, the services business, when we talk about, has two elements: One, on the performance enhancers, which go for our ethanol business and the cogeneration. We have seen the traction happening on both the sides. And performance enhancers, if I may say that, it has component of domestic and international both. And the uptick which we are seeing is actually happening in all the segments. Going forward, your question is related to what we in the future. We see that this momentum for services business is going to continue. Rather, other businesses will also start contributing to the services business, especially now as the CBG is coming to a maturity level, in the sense the plants are coming up for finality.
This is starting, our performance enhancers for placement is also going to be a part of this, entire services basket. So going forward, we see that this, the momentum for services business to continue. Additionally, we are also seeing a big move happening globally on capture of biogenic CO2. There's a CO2 that gets released in the fermentation process, and, we expect that this could become a significant, product line as we move forward. We already have a few installations that we built, but they were far and few in between, but we now see a very concentrated movement happening. So as we move through the timeline, you will see, this opportunity develop as, also as a part of our services business opportunity.
So lastly, on gross margin. This quarter and last quarter, we did, I think 50% last quarter. This quarter, we did 47%, and I'm assuming services business might have better gross margin, and then ETCA coming in. So, would you like to answer on sustainability of gross margin at this level, or it will settle down to some lower sustainable level? Any thoughts on gross margins post-ETCA revenue also coming in next year?
I think the quarter two margins should keep on continuing on a sustainable basis. Of course, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, you'll see some kind of a variation happening for the reason to what extent we are executing the engineering services order, which are not the services business segment, which we are mentioning. Second one is the sales mix, mainly on the domestic and international. So to some extent, there will be some variation, but yes, the range is going to be more or less same what is getting reported in this quarter.
So, sir, thank you so much for answering my question.
Thank you, Amit.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Dipesh Agrawal from UTI AMC. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good afternoon, team. Am I audible?
Yes. Good afternoon.
Yeah. So my first question is on CBG. Was there any order inflow for CBG in the first half?
Was there any?
Order inflow for CBG in the first half?
Yes, as I mentioned, that we have signed the deal already in the order book. There is a first project based entirely on Napier grass. So we are building projects where Napier grass is one of the feedstocks, but now this is exclusively on Napier grass. There is some development which is still premature to talk about. There are companies in the market or interested developers in the market who are thinking in terms of growing their own feedstock and then set up the CBG project, and Napier grass is likely to be what I would call as a feedstock of choice. So this is very important one. We get a project to build where the promoter has his own feedstock growing area and connected to a biogas plant. So...
This is the likely model. We think that that could become a decent model as we move forward. We have to see how these things develop, and that is why I mentioned that that's an important breakthrough for us.
Okay. And sir, how has been the progress on the execution of the CBG plants, which we took last year, the five CBG plants?
They are progressing well, and actually you'll start to see them come onto the noticeable level of, you know, in sales and invoicing as we go through the second half of the year.
... Sure. So if I look at your order info during the quarter, I think exports has been quite weak, while last quarter they were quite strong. But if I look on a trend line basis, your exports this quarter has been quite weakening. Comments, is it something's happened during this quarter in the export market?
Yeah, no. I mean, it's just a timeline issue. You know, these are very large contracts, especially, engineering dominated, as well as the bioenergy, and both of them, it's just a timing issue. We just couldn't manage to close them out during the quarter. But, as I was mentioning, the pipeline is extremely strong, our dialogues are very strong, so we aren't... What, what would I say? We aren't really worried. At the end of nine months, we expect it to be back to normal.
Sure. And sir, lastly, of late, there has been a lot of articles suggesting government may look at diesel blending, while timing we may not be able to comment, but any thoughts, where are we in terms of technology for diesel blending?
Yes. So there is, as you probably estimate. We don't have to discover the molecule, it's already there, the alcohol molecule is already there. Now we just need to see how the engines behave and what the emissions are, and the other dimensions on vehicle performance, so there is a structured program that is currently underway, and I think we will be able to talk about it. We are right now bound by some clauses in the agreement, but we will be able to talk about it once the tests are done. It is progressing positively, is the only comment that I can make at this stage.
Okay, sure. And all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Sunny Bhadra from Axis Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Thank you for taking my question. So I think my first question is on similar lines. So we can see the order intake for bioenergy has been really very strong this quarter, but on the other side, engineering has been, I think one of the weakest quarters in maybe last two years. So what are your expectations for the next two quarters? Do you see engineering orders improving, and do we see the bioenergy momentum to continue?
As I was mentioning in the earlier question, it's been just a timing issue for two contracts on engineering. There are very strong dialogues that are underway. We expect things to be normal within the second half, so on the engineering side of the business, absolutely no concern there at all. We are also expecting bioenergy to continue to grow, and both in domestic and international markets, we expect very strong performances to come. One of the big movements that we start to see, as we move forward, is the development of the SAF market, which is something that we haven't talked about much yet, but probably as we go forward through the second half of the year, we'll start talking about it. It clearly has two elements.
There's the engineering business there, there's the technology business there, and we will see how, on the low carbon and SAF side, so we'll see how both of them combine together, and that's why that gives us the confidence to speak. That, as we see our inquiry pipeline, our dialogue with customers, our interaction, we are very, very confident that second half, second half of the year will sort of iron out the creases that have developed temporarily for this quarter.
Okay. And just one small question. So on the MTM losses, so if I understand correctly, it would be in inverse proportion to EBITDA, right? Because you would be hedging some of your exposure. So does it mean that going ahead, if the MTM losses come down or if there is a gain, then the EBITDA will be on slightly lower side?
So if you look at from the MTM point of view, it gets evened out over a period of time. And the impact of MTM on EBITDA, I don't think should be a significant one, because this is the element which is coming up every quarter for us. Sometimes it is positive, sometimes it's negative. Yes, this quarter it is negative by INR 7 crore. Not necessarily it will continue in that way, but your point is whether it will have an EBITDA impact, I don't think it will have a significant impact on my EBITDA.
Okay. Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Niraj Vasa from ASK Investment Managers. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Good afternoon, and thank you very much for this opportunity. Sir, my question is pertaining to the proposed ethanol blending in diesel. So if I look at the petrol and diesel consumption statistics, diesel consumption is almost around 2.5-2.7 times the petrol consumption in India. So if the diesel blending has to be done in India, and based on your assessment, is there enough feedstock in India to feed this kind of massive demand? Because as I understand, we are around, the petrol blending is around 14-15%, which we intend to increase to 20% in a couple of years. So there is an organic demand coming from the petrol side, and the demand boost, if it comes from diesel, is going to be mountainous.
Wanted to understand your thoughts on the ecosystem as a whole, and what kind of CapEx can happen industry-wide if this starts? Thank you.
Thanks. So, yeah, I think great question. From the perspective of feedstock, I think as we know, there are three broad category, or a category of feedstock.... sugar-based feedstock on which, as we mentioned earlier in my opening remarks as well, that, new policy now permits, juice and molasses B conversion and syrup conversion directly to, ethanol, that's a boost. That's number one. The government is focusing very strongly on maize, which is starchy feedstock, that's another boost. They release rice, that's another boost. What's more important is that there's a completely untouched area of cellulosic feedstocks, which is not even, I would say we have not even started to exploit it yet.
And that is why my comment on IOC commissioning is very important, that as we go through the second half of the year, we will see that project commission and demonstrate that it is possible to use cellulosic feedstocks and convert them to ethanol, and that could become a further big boost. From the perspective of feedstock, I think right now we are pretty okay. That's number one. Number two, we are also working as an organization with some of the leading institutes in the country to see what can be done, because I think we have to understand that this is not only about ethanol production. It is also about well-being of the agri community and finding an overall sustainable solution.
We are working very closely with VSI to create an intercropping model that will allow us to get the benefit of not only having a healthy feedstock pipeline, but it will also help us address in time to come, and we'll talk about it maybe a little down the line, the carbon intensity questions on the feedstock, because if it's intercropping model, then you get huge advantages on the carbon side of the equation, and that is something that will become very, very mandatory for SAF, even for other fuels. So, currently, I don't see a problem for feedstock availability. As you are aware, the DSPD has already recommended to me, IOC, that we can very easily go to E-25 in the country without any concerns about feedstock.
So that should put to rest any concern that we may have on feedstock, at least in the visible term.
Sir, but as a part of developing the entire ecosystem to even, you know, as we are talking of integrating diesel, as we are talking of integrating ethanol in the diesel ecosystem as well. So my understanding is that the, the agri waste or the cellulosic waste, which was there, that has to be there in the, that is needed at much larger quantities. But today, as we talk, there is already an alternative use of this bio for this agri waste, which is there at local level. So if the demand or so if all of a sudden there is a huge demand boost, then the prices of these agri waste can also boost up, and that can impact the, that can impact the what I can say, overall project viability as well. So any thoughts-
Uh
... are you able to see on it, like, ease of availability of buyer stock, and what kind of CapEx, according to you, can that happen, can it lead to assuming it happens?
So I think great question. You're right, that, so a whole host, and this is now running into millions of tons estimates on the biomass or the cellulosic waste that is not being put to any use in the country right now. Farmers just torch it. So that's from the perspective of availability, I think, we are not even scratching the surface today. So there is, it's easily possible for me to meet almost up to 20% of the country's demand of energy through cellulosic feedstock processing. So I'm not worried about that part. What is of importance is that we establish the correct supply chain for this, and that needs to get organized. I think that's one area where we definitely need to work.
That we need to organize ourselves as an industry, when I say ourselves, I'm talking about the country. And we create a supply chain mechanism that allows this agricultural waste to reach from farm to factories. And I think that's a very important step that needs to be taken forward. But that's not the only one. I think there's also a very important biomass which is likely to be increasingly more available, and that's bagasse with the sugar mills. As renewable power equation in the country settles to a dimension which is dominated by solar and wind, we expect a lot more bagasse to become freely available, and that could become an excellent feedstock for production of ethanol.
And we do expect that as we move through, let us say, next calendar year, we'll be able to see some constructive development on that dimension as well.
Bagasse is already used by the existing sugar companies for the cogen, right?
Yes, but they have, as you know, sugar mill is done for four months.
Okay.
Five months in a year. So, and bagasse, the excess quantity of bagasse that's increasingly projected to be made available.
Okay.
And then we have to find a good use of it. And we believe that, on two counts, one, availability of feedstock, all the supply chain related issues are already solved. Bagasse is a very good feedstock for 2G as well. And more important, it will also help, you know, meet the lower carbon intensity target that we have as we move in the future. So it's a feedstock that ticks on multiple boxes. So we expect that could become one. Two, on the rice straw, I think, as I was mentioning to you, we are not even beginning to organize our entire value chain supply chain in a very constructive manner. The initial efforts right now underway, and as I see it, it's moving forward very constructively. There are-...
Platforms that are getting created, there is a growing awareness, saying, "Oh, this is possible as a business." So farmers today burn it. From there, they start to get a value for it, so I think that's a big travel. And I'm sure that we will see emergence of a cellulosic feedstock supply chain also emerge as we move forward.
Got it. My final question, sir, in, like, in FY 2024, our diesel consumption was almost 8,950 crore liters. So assuming if I want to add 1% ethanol into it, my incremental demand for ethanol can be almost 89-90 crore liters. So if 90 crore liters of ethanol has to be additionally fed into the system, what kind of CapEx would it need?
Let me turn to my calculator for that. Because I don't know the feedstock, so there's not a ready reckoner study answer for you. But, we'll get back to you on that one. Yeah.
Broadly, any number can you give, like, say, take for example, for one crore liter of ethanol, what can be approximate CapEx? And what can be the broad scope of work in that?
So, Miro, if you look at from a ballpark number point of view, and if you are saying, let's assume INR 100 crore to be added as a capacity for ethanol, and if we are looking at 100 kLPD kind of a plant, standard size of plant, of course, the standard size has gone up now, then we are looking at at least 30 to 35 plants to come up. Every plant will cost, depending on the feedstock, maybe INR 100-225 crore. So what you are looking at, at least INR 3,000-4,000-
INR 4,000 crores.
INR 3,000-4,000 crore kind of an investment. If you are looking at only the process plant to be taken care of by Praj, maybe 40%-50% of that. So around 1,800 crores to 2,000 crore for every percentage increase in land. Yeah.
Got it. This is helpful. I will get back with more questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Wishing everyone a very happy Diwali.
Thank you as well.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants, please limit yourself to two questions per participant. The next question is from the line of Sailesh Kanani from Centrum Broking. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir, and thanks for the opportunity. Is my voice audible, sir?
Yes, Sailesh, good afternoon.
Good afternoon, sir. Sir, in your opening remarks, you said, after the cap removal on feedstock, the traction on the ground was not very strong. But still in this quarter, we have seen a good momentum on the bioenergy front in terms of order inflow. So, and you touched upon CBG as one Napier grass order we did in CBG. So what other molecule has kind of picked up the order, so has helped the order inflow for bioenergy in this quarter?
So, Sailesh, what I was mentioning was that the sugary feedstock-based release that happened, you know, the-
Mm-hmm.
The restrictions on use of syrup, juice, and B-Heavy Molasses went away. However, obviously, you will know this is too close to the season, so, maybe for the next year, people will start thinking about putting capacity based on these feedstocks. So this year was just too short a time for anyone to do anything. So those who have the plants will be able to operate them, but those who don't have, the new plant cannot be built in such short time. So maybe if we start building now, it'll be probably ready for next season. In terms of order intake, as I mentioned, 100% of our order book is on starchy feedstock.
Maize has become a big focus for everyone all the elements in the value chain, and I think that's what we are seeing as well. We see a big push forward on maize.
Okay. And so second question with respect to our Napier grass, CBG plant. Vis-a-vis, can you throw some light about the IRR that project would generate means, vis-a-vis other feedstocks, like press mud or rice straw, any numbers or anything you can help on with respect to yields of that feedstock? And also availability of Napier grass per se.
As I was mentioning, the Napier grass is a very, very interesting crop, actually. You can take five crops in a year. Very interesting.
Okay.
It can be almost five to nine crops in a year if you can manage your plantation well. Very direct from field to factory kind of a feedstock. Very potent. Not too many, there are some complexities with it, but technology can very easily address them, so that's not a problem. So Napier Grass is a good feedstock to have. As I was mentioning, we are seeing. We have just seen initial trends where people are saying: "Okay, I will grow my own Napier Grass, and I'll put up the thing." So that's the first such project that came along, and it was. That's the one that we are building. Where everybody will be able to grow and then take it, or some will grow and some will supply.
So that time will tell how the whole ecosystem develops. But it's a good feedstock to have, it has a very, it's very remunerative for the agriculture, for the agri ecosystem. And if we can think of a plant located in the middle of a Napier Grass plantation, then that is a very good one to have, because then all the nutrients that come back from the process in terms of liquid and solid biofertilizers can all go back to the same field. So it becomes very, very a completely closed loop. So no water required, no. The water that comes goes back, the nutrients that come go back, the soil remains rich and fertile. So there are many dimensions on the agri side, which are very positive.
And we expect that maybe this looks like from the dialogue that we are having, that this could be a model that could develop further.
... And just a follow-up on that, is this the same private conglomerate which gave us the five CBG orders? It's Napier Grass?
No, different. Where we are doing a project. There, those projects have Napier Grass as a feedstock, but that's not exclusively on Napier Grass. This one is different.
Can you throw some light on, is it private or a government company? Can you throw some light on the client side?
Private, private sector. Entirely private.
Okay. Sir, can I squeeze in one more question?
Sorry to interrupt, sir.
Yeah.
Please rejoin the queue for further questions.
Sorry, sorry. I'm not controlling the time.
The next question is on the line of Sagar Dhawan from ValueQuest. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, are you able to hear me clearly?
Yes, Sagar.
Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. Sir, just on the execution side during the quarter, just wanted to get a bit more color on the execution. So, you know, we saw declining execution on a YY basis. So just wanted to get some color on the domestic bioenergy side. Can you talk about, you know, what is sort of ailing the execution over here by, you know, basically in terms of the feedstock or sugar versus starchy? Where does the problem lie actually in terms of execution?
Yeah. So, Sagar, if you really think about it, no, just a year back, the ban came, right, on the feedstock, one on rice and then on sugar, sugary feedstock. So the projects that were in pipeline at that time, which would have actually come for execution now in first two quarters, did not go through, right? Because... And that's why I said that it got notified a bit too late, in the year. Even if I start constructing some projects now, I won't be able to catch the season because it will take four or five months, six months to move forward, by the time the season will be over. So I think some recasting of the plan has to be done for those kind of contracts, which has, which I would say are, were, ready to execute but had stopped.
So now they will start again. The bankers have to take a view, et cetera, et cetera, so those will move forward. In terms of execution of starch-based, starchy feedstock-based plant, I think they are in general moving fairly okay. There are some issues around bank funding, et cetera, but nothing, no, no, sort of clarification required on the policy side or the ecosystem side of the dialogue.
Understood, sir. So basically, can you provide the mix of your order book in terms of sugar versus starchy, domestic bioenergy?
I said that 100% of the order book is starchy.
Sir, I think
None. Not only for us, the market didn't finalize anything.
That's on the intake, sir. Actually, wanted to get a sense on the current order book, order backlog. What is the mix on the order backlog, sugar versus starchy?
Even in the order book, if you will see, the sugary feedstock will be a minuscule number right now, maybe one, because last three, four quarters, we are running without, except for one order that I know of personally, we don't have a sugary feedstock-based order. Most of them are starchy feedstock-based.
Understood, sir. Understood. So my second question was on the SAF opportunity. In the last quarter, we had announced an order win for a greenfield SAF plant in the U.S. Just trying to understand what percentage of the CapEx do we cater to from this particular order of that customer on the CapEx side, to get a sense of the addressable opportunity for us?
Sorry, could you just repeat your question? I couldn't catch what you want in the mix.
Yeah, sure, sir. So basically, on the SAF side, in the U.S., we have received an order from U.S. in the last quarter for ATJ pathway, SAF plant. So just wanted to understand, what percentage of CapEx is Praj able to address in the overall CapEx of the greenfield SAF plant?
Almost, it depends on the scope, of course, of what we can address or we can build other dimensions as well, but between 40% to 50%.
Okay. Okay. And just to clarify, there are two parts to it. Basically, the ethanol plant and the isobutanol conversion to SAF. So does Praj address both these or only the first step, which is the making the ethanol from there?
No. So, Sagar, that's not the way it works. So an ATJ plant is alcohol-to-jet plant. Currently, all alcohol-to-jet projects that are being announced are on ethanol to jet. So alcohol equals ethanol in these projects. So they are only setting up these alcohols. They will buy... In most of the cases, these customers are saying, "We will buy ethanol from the market." Okay?
Okay.
Number one. Number two, if they set up their own, then of course, what feedstock, what carbon intensity, et cetera, those questions will come into play. So there are projects which are also contemplating to set up their own ethanol plants. There are projects they're saying, "I already have an ethanol plant. Now I want to forward integrate into SAF." And then, for those cases, the carbon intensity becomes a question because they have to see what solutions are required by them to be addressed, whether in terms of, process integration, whether in terms of process optimization, how do you go about reducing the carbon intensity, carbon sequestration, about, overall score. So because SAF, it is in America, in United States, then we need to go to a score which is 50% below the existing number for the SAF.
That means that the ethanol has to be at a score of about 35, 30, in that range. How... Whereas the current ethanol production is at a number of about 68. How do you go from 68 to 38? That is the first step. Then you integrate that into the SAF project. There are multiple loops that need to get answered depending on where the developer is today. An existing ethanol producer, he wants to put up new ethanol, or he just wants to put up SAF project and buy ethanol. There are different dimensions for that.
Got it, sir. Just, just a follow-up on the ATJ side, on the ATJ plant setup, what is the addressable opportunity in the US that you see, over here?
... Sorry, what is the addressable opportunity we see in United States?
In the United States for ATJ plant, ATJ setup.
For a given one ATJ plant or all the ATJ plants?
No, for all the ATJ projects. For all in the U.S. Overall opportunity.
Okay. Wait, can I tell you this again? This is actually pretty large. So let me tell you. The United States has said that they will, their target is to put three billion gallon capacity for SAF, okay? Roughly, and I'm just putting for ease of calculation now, 1.6-2 billion will come through the HEFA route. And after that, everything will likely to come through, at least in the near future, likely to come through the ATJ route. So let us say up to 2030, it's a billion gallons of ethanol to be produced, right?
In SAF.
Sorry, billion gallons of SAF, so that will mean it will need two billion gallons of ethanol, okay? So one billion gallons of SAF equals two billion gallons of ethanol, okay? Now, if I look at a project size of typically 100 million gallons per year of ethanol, which will result into 50 million gallons per year of SAF. So 50 million gallons into a billion, that's 20 plus. Right? So 20 projects have to come up between now and 2030 to address it. And I'm not talking only the SAF opportunity, the ATJ part of it. Each of this is a $400 million potential for us.
Got it. Got it. Thanks for answering my question, sir. That's it for me. Thank you.
Yeah. But again, there are many dimensions to this. There are technology, who is the technology supplier? Who is the EPC? What's our risk appetite? What kind of performance guarantees we can provide? So there are multiple dimensions, but from the market perspective, this is very attractive opportunity that will unfold as we move forward.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please limit yourselves to two questions per participant. The next question is from the line of Shyam Maheshwari from Aditya Birla Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Am I audible, sir?
Yes, you are.
Perfect. So I just wanted to inquire on the status of our Bengaluru facility. So have you already started churning revenues out of that, or is it still under approval stage? What is the ramp-up going to be like? So if you could just maybe touch base on that.
So we started this GenX facility in the month of February, March of last year. We are actually executing one order right now. The execution right now definitely on the lower side, because we had spent last six months in getting the customer's approval. We got almost four approvals already from the customer, but getting it converted into order is going to take time. One of the order, which we have already received and executing in GenX facility, is from the earlier customer who had approved this facility in the month of September, October of the last year. So that execution is going on. So revenue contribution at this point of time from GenX is very, very minuscule. It's not meaningful in the H1 of this year, the numbers which you are seeing currently.
But yes, as the facility is already capitalized, the cost on that has already started kicking in, and that's what I was referring earlier in our opening remarks, that the depreciation element of that is getting factored in in this H1 number, but not the corresponding revenue, which we are believing that based on the order booking which should happen now, the revenue will start kicking in in a meaningful way, maybe from quarter four to some extent, but from the next year, definitely.
Understood. Understood. And considering, you know, there is a sufficient headroom here now in order to grow our engineering side of business, and while I understand this quarter, there were some slippages in terms of our order inflow. But before that, for the past three or four quarters, we have been averaging around 200-250 crore kind of inflow in the engineering segment. With this additional facility, with these approvals now in place, should inflows now start meaningfully, you know, start showing an uptick even from this 200-250 numbers? Is that what we expect going forward?
Oh, that's right. That's what we are saying, that the order booking in a meaningful will start getting built up for the engineering going forward.
From second half onwards, definitely, yes. Understand. Understood. Okay, that's it from my side. All the best, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ankita Shah from Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, this is Ankita here. Sir, on the India bioenergy segment, given that-
Yeah, could you speak a little bit louder, please?
Sir, I'm audible now?
Yes, little better.
Yes. Yes. So for on the bio-India bioenergy segment, you know, what is the, you know, kind of ordering which is pending for achieving the 20% blending? And incrementally, how much can come if we extend this blending to 25%? So what could be the opportunity of capacity that can be developed to achieve that target?
So the three billion liters would be the capacity addition that will be required to meet this three and a half billion-
... Sorry, sir, come again?
Roughly 3-3.5 billion liters annual capacity will be required to be built to meet this additional 5%.
This is annual for the next, five years?
We'll have to see. Of course, the capacity will have to get adjusted as we move forward to increase the basic energy consumption in the economy. But I'm saying today, if I have to meet it, then that's the numbers.
No. So this is the total number or is this annual number?
Additional number.
Incremental.
Incremental.
Okay. Okay. And sir, this includes the pending pipelines to achieve the 20% blending also, that is also included in this?
The 20 is, yeah, 20 is different. We are, I'm just saying if 5% has to get added from 20, then that's the number.
Done. Got it, got it. And, sir, how much was the R&D spend for the first half of the year?
So R&D spend has two elements, Ankita. One is on the CapEx side, another one is on the OpEx side. On the OpEx side, we might have spent almost INR 15 crore in the first half, and on the CapEx side, we have just capitalized one of the asset that is this lactic acid plant, almost around INR 50-55 crore kind of a number. The second half, we will see some more spend happening on the CapEx side, because this multipurpose facility is going to get a couple of more product line getting attached to that, so there will be some CapEx happening on that. But on an average, the OpEx for every year is somewhere around INR 20-25 to 28 crore kind of a number.
Okay, and CapEx could be how much for the full year?
By the end of this year, we should have CapEx of almost on the R&D side. It sits around INR 65-70 crores.
Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vikram Suryavanshi from PhillipCapital. Please go ahead. Sir, I request you to move a bit close to your handset and speak.
Sorry, sir. Sir, I just wanted to. Now, we have started demo facility for PLA. How that business model will evolve for us, and what are the different raw materials we tried for that PLA?
So, Vikram, the facility that we built, the first product that we are able to demonstrate out of that is PLA. There'll be multiple products. It's a biopolymer facility, so it will be able to demonstrate multiple for a client as we move forward. That's number one. Number two, we just commissioned, so give us a bit of a time to actually be able to answer your question in full integrity. We've just commissioned, we have demonstrated, we know the process works. There are lots of customers, both from India and abroad, who have shown interest. Some have visited as well. So it's developing very positively, but probably it's too early for me to answer anything specifically. But broadly speaking, multi-product facility, commissioned now, multiple customer interest, both from India and abroad, and a few visits have taken place.
That's the update I can give you today.
Okay. And, just an extension of that, along with PLA, are there also opportunities for us to like, bioplastic, which is like a, PET or, PHA or any other, verticals within plastic apart from PLA, where we can extend, or focus will be primarily to capitalize PLA first?
Yes. Yes, Vikram, as I mentioned, this is not a PLA facility, this is a biopolymer facility, so we will be able to demonstrate multiple molecules. PHA, PHB, they are all lined up. Actually, our R&D guys are pushing Sachin to approve their expenses so that they can start demonstrating other molecules. So that's a dialogue that we will have, of course, in consultation with our board and chairman, and then we'll move forward.
Mr. Vikram, does that answer your question?
Vikram?
Mr. Vikram, does that answer your question?
Yes, thank you.
Response, we move on to the next question. The next question is from the line of Sai Siddhartha from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible?
Yes, Manish. Sorry, yes, Sai, sorry.
All right. Yeah, thanks, sir. So, I just wanted to ask about, there's this recent IPO listing company coming in the bioenergy space, and this particular company is kind of saying that it has a 30% market share in the 1G ethanol capacities that have been deployed so far in the last three years. And, if I kind of read through into that DRHP, they don't have a mention of any R&D expense as such, anywhere. So, in a space like this, is there any imminent risk that is there for Praj, wherein it has a 60% plus market, kind of a market share in the ethanol capacities that have been deployed so far?
So, Sai, I would not comment on what others are saying. That's not fair for me. However, what I would say is this: We are not limited to domestic market. We are a business which is global, globally present. As we have already shared with you, our effort is to actually diversify our offerings across the geographies, across the molecules as well, and not get limited only to ethanol. So for us, R&D has a very, very different meaning and purpose. Each organization can have their own philosophy for doing their business model in a particular fashion. And good luck to everybody based on their business model. We believe that R&D is the way forward, because there are different molecules, different feedstocks, different geographies, different operating practices, different coding standards. So that's how we approach our business.
And that we continue to believe that we need to continue to invest into these so that we are able to provide the full justice to what is possible. In our opinion, we are trying to solve a much bigger problem that the humanity is facing, and that's the view that we have.
Understood. Got that clear. Thanks a lot, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Manish Goyal from ThinkWise Wealth Managers. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you so much, sir. I have a couple of questions. First, on the corn oil as a by-product which can be blended with diesel as a biodiesel, sorry. Just wanted to get a perspective, like, because I believe in the current season, nearly 50% of the ethanol offered was based on the maize as a feedstock. So in that context, when we have already so much installed capacity, then to have a by-product, how much of the production one can get as a by-product, which can get blended with diesel?
Just want to get a perspective, like if you probably have hundred tons of corn being used, how much ethanol can be produced, and how much of corn oil can be produced, and what is the additional CapEx for bolt-on required for implementing this?
So, Manish, this, as I was mentioning, the challenge going forward, for multiple different reasons, for producers of ethanol, is going to be: How do they maximize the value of their operation life?
Correct.
We believe that one way in which they can maximize the value is by focusing on co-products that could be extracted as they process the feedstock, without compromising the end product, in the sense that if I put up a hundred KLPD or a two hundred KLPD, so let's take hundred for the argument's sake, hundred KLPD corn to ethanol plant, I must get hundred KLPD ethanol first. That's the first requirement.
Mm-hmm.
I must get the DDGS that I want, you know, 300 tons per day or whatever, you know, that I get out of this without any 10 kilotons per day, without any compromises whatsoever. So those are two established streams. I need them. Then I go to the next-
Sorry, I missed-
Without compromising these two, you can go and get corn oil as well. So, the idea of a co-product is that it does not compromise what's already existing, but it only allows you to extract more from the other streams that come out of the project life.
Sorry, sir, I missed the second part. You said 100 KLPD of ethanol production as first priority. Second was what? And,
The second is from the DDGS, which comes out as a by-product today.
Okay.
I cannot tell... So if I have to protect that revenue as well for the customer, because we are looking at enhancing the value for them. So after protecting these two, what can I do with the balance, raw material that is available without changing the feedstock quantity and input, and without compromising these two outputs? What can I do to enhance the value? And that is the co-product development strategy, and corn oil is one such product. There'll be many more to come as we move forward. But corn oil is one of them.
No, so that is what I was trying to understand, that if you put a-
... biodiesel. It's a biodiesel by itself.
Yeah. So I just trying to understand, if you put a 100 KLPD plant, if one able to get whatever required production of ethanol and DDGS, then how much of the corn oil production can we get out? Just trying to get a perspective there, because you already have facilities in place, and then if it gets leveraged for biodiesel, then how can it be?
Yes, Manish, for reasons of competitive advantages, I'm not willing to give you the exact numbers on this one at this call here.
Sure. And, my second question was-
Sorry to interrupt, sir.
Okay.
Please rejoin the queue for further questions. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Faisal Hawa from H.G. Hawa & Co. Please go ahead.
Sir, how is the maize opportunity looking? Because maize is also something which can produce in a large quantity, and it is not utilized as much for consumption. And do you feel that a lot of people like Gujarat Ambuja Exports or somebody would also come into production for the same? And secondly, sir, are you now also looking at very large ticket orders as a policy to really raise the turnover much faster, rather than keep on taking on all kinds of ticket sizes orders?
Faisal, to answer the second question first, I think what's important is to get the right scale, because if you have the right scale, then obviously the right economies of scale which the producers want, because the guy, the person or the entity that is putting up the project would want to have returns on capital that they employ. There's a minimum size that any project lender sells to. Those sizes are going up as we go forward. That's what is happening world over as well. No surprises there, that capacities of the plants are moving up, because obviously as the cost goes up, as inflation goes up, people are trying to leverage maximum to the extent they can to leverage their fixed cost to that particular extent. That's one dimension.
What was your first question?
My first question was about maize opportunity. This could be a very large one, because India produce a lot of maize, which is and not all is consumed by the population.
Yes. Sir, are you saying, is the question on maize opportunity? Is that what you're saying?
A lot of plants will come up for conversion of maize to ethanol or maize to-
Yes.
Biofuels.
Yes.
So do you concur with that kind of a statement?
Of course, we, as I mentioned, 100% of our order book this quarter is based on starchy feedstock. Maize is the predominantly starchy feedstock.
Okay. And we do stand by our statement of doubling revenue in three years from today?
Sorry, we stand by our statement of what?
Of doubling revenue in three years from today.
Yes.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shesha Vora, who is an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, Shesha Vora.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you, Shesha Vora.
Sir, my question is on the metrics. I believe that we were developing a biodegradable plastic. So what are the stages on that, sir?
As I was mentioning, we have commissioned this multipurpose biopolymer facility for demonstration of our technology. The first molecule that we've demonstrated is lactic acid for the lactide and then PLA. This facility will also be able to demonstrate many other molecules as time goes forward. I was mentioning earlier that this has generated a lot of interest. We are seeing interest from both international and domestic future project proponents. Very early days. We just probably have three weeks since this was demonstrated and dedicated to the country. Please give us some time, but very positive interest in developing that technology.
Yeah. And so one last question about the high-purity water. I think we have got one customer from the semiconductor industry last year. So any further development on that?
So the job that we'd executed was actually for a battery and an intermediate system. So that we have, that we've executed. The further developments you will come to know as the industry develop, because these are, as you can see, these are extremely large-sized projects, and we are trying to understand that what is the play for us, and is there a play for Indian technology to, Indian companies to play in that, or is everything imported? We are trying to have that dialogue with several customers who are, who have announced the projects for setting up semiconductor facilities.
Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management from Praj Industries for closing comments.
Thank you everyone for your time today. In case you have any more questions, feel free to write us at info@praj.net. We wish you and your family members a very happy Diwali, and see you in next quarter. Thank you.