Danish bio-solutions major Novonesis plans to roll out its proposed ₹2,500-3,000 crore investment in Maharashtra over the next 24-36 months, with its Patalganga manufacturing site set to be a key beneficiary as the company expands capacity to tap growing demand for biofuels, food and health solutions and agricultural biologicals in India.
The company, formed through the 2024 merger of Novozymes and Chr. Hansen, expects remaining approvals and sign-offs for the Maharashtra project to be completed this year, following which details of the investment will be announced.
“The ₹2,500-3,000 crore that we talked about in India is over a period of two-three years,” Krishna Mohan Puvvada, Regional President, Middle East, India and Africa, Novonesis, said. The company signed an MoU with the Maharashtra government earlier this year.
A significant part of the expansion is expected at Patalganga, where Novonesis has a manufacturing facility and substantial land available for additional capacity.
“We are looking towards the Patalganga part, where we can leverage more, because when we got this facility, only 10 per cent of the overall land has been utilised,” Puvvada said.
Novonesis also operates at Wada in Maharashtra. Its Indian plants manufacture enzymes and health and nutrition ingredients, including products for export.
The investment comes as Novonesis expects emerging markets to outpace developed economies, with India central to that strategy. Against the company’s global organic sales growth ambition of 6-9 per cent, Puvvada said emerging markets, including India, would need to grow faster.
Bioenergy is emerging as a major growth opportunity. Novonesis supplies enzymes, yeast and other biological technologies to ethanol manufacturers to improve yields, shorten fermentation cycles and lower energy consumption.
“We are not involved in biofuel production. We work with the ethanol manufacturers who then sell to OMCs,” Puvvada said.
The company says newer yeast technologies can reduce fermentation time by about 25 per cent, cutting energy requirements and production risks while improving yields.
Novonesis is also moving further down the agricultural value chain. It recently launched a biological solution in Karnataka that it says can increase sugarcane yields by about 15 per cent, potentially improving feedstock economics for ethanol producers.
Beyond ethanol, the company is working with organised players in India’s emerging biogas ecosystem. Trials using different substrates have shown output improvements ranging from over 15 per cent to 25-30 per cent in some cases, although results depend on feedstock and operating conditions.
Food and health, probiotics, animal nutrition and agricultural biologicals are also widening its addressable market as Indian companies increasingly replace conventional chemical processes with biological alternatives.
Puvvada, however, identified regulation as a key constraint, particularly in agriculture, saying biological products continue to face lengthy approvals and are often assessed under frameworks designed for chemicals., calling for faster and more transparent regulatory pathways to support investment and innovation in biological solutions.
Published on August 19, 2026
