Murugappa Group Company, TII, Acquires 50% Stake in IIT Madras Incubated Waste-to-Fuel Startup X2Fuel

Tube Investments of India, a Murugappa Group company, has agreed to acquire a 50% stake in X2Fuels & Energy, a startup company engaged in developing processes to convert waste into fuels, for 61.5 million Indian rupees ($752,815), reported leading national dailies.

As part of the acquisition deal , the company will subscribe to 10,753 equity shares of X2Fuels.

Incubated at the IIT Madras Incubation Cell, X2Fuels & Energy is an early-stage start-up based at the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) at IIT Madras.

The major goal of X2Fuels & Energy is to employ thermochemical technologies including hydrothermal liquefaction and pyrolysis to convert wastes to fuels and energy in a distributed fashion to solve the solid waste problem in India.

Currently, with the available platform, the startup is developing commercial-ready technology as it work with its partners to build the India’s first commercial-scale distributed hydrothermal plant.

The technology will be compact, adaptable for different feedstocks, energy efficient and reliable. It is being designed to cater the waste disposal problems of different sectors, viz., agricultural, municipalities, industrial plants, to make energy-rich fuels towards a Circular Economy. 

X2Fuels was founded in 2018, by Dr Vinu R and Dr S R Chakravarty. The tech startup has developed a microwave pyrolysis reactor to produce high quality bio-oil from mixtures of biomass agri-residues and waste plastics that is similar in characteristics to petroleum-derived light fuel oil (LFO).

Incorporated as TI Cycles of India Limited in 1949, Tube Investments of India Limited is a Murugappa Group company that specializes in engineering, bicycles, metal formed products, and chains.

About the Murugappa Group, it is over 100 year old Indian conglomerate founded in 1900 and has 28 businesses including nine companies listed on the NSE and the BSE. Headquartered in Chennai, the major companies of Murugappa Group include Carborundum Universal Ltd., Cholamandalam Financial Holdings Ltd., Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Ltd. and Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd., among others.

Advertisements