Novozymes is trying to tap the huge potential of the vast Indian biomass resources and is looking to generate a million jobs by 2020

Novozymes, which is a group company of Novo Nordisk, Denmark, is represented in India by Novozymes South Asia and is headquartered at Bangalore. Novozymes, a leader in bioinnovation, has businesses in industrial enzymes, microorganisms and biopharmaceutical ingredients. Its biological solutions save energy and raw materials and also reduce waste, thus resulting in higher quality, lower costs, lower CO2 emissions and a better environment.

Novozymes South Asia, the largest supplier of industrial enzymes and microorganisms in India, is catering to the requirements in the detergent, food, feed, textile, leather, oils and fats, beverage and biofuel industries. The firm registered a growth of about nine percent in 2010-11 with sales revenue of 242 crore as compared to the previous year’s revenue of 224 crore.

Detergent and technical enzyme sales were the strongest growth drivers for the company in absolute terms. While the sales of microorganisms performed well during the year, the divestment of noncore ingredient activities in India in the year 2009 impacted the growth of the company in a negative manner.

In November, last year, the company opened its new state-of-the art R&D center and office at Whitefield in Bangalore, India. The R&D center will undertake protein engineering work for Novozymes’ global requirements and will act as a resource base for the company’s global discovery projects. The center will also serve as an application technology excellence center for Novozymes’ global juice and wine industry requirements. The center is actively innovating food applications for the Indian market by undertaking research to understand the local needs in India.

Novozymes India began its operations in 1983 and has grown into an organization that is spread across three sites in India, covering manufacturing, business functions, a shared service center and R&D.

Novozymes is focusing on biofuel in a big way in India and it aims to produce second generation bioethanol mainly from agricultural residues and waste. The company is trying to tap the huge potential of the vast Indian biomass resources and is looking to create around a million aggregated jobs between 2010 and 2020, thus providing the much-required impetus for inclusive growth by providing employment in rural India.

Novozymes entered into an agreement with Praj Industries, a diversified biofuel and brewery technology solutions provider.
Together, Praj and Novozymes will optimize the enzymatic hydrolysis processes and the use of enzymes in the production of advanced biofuels. Novozymes believes that this collaboration with Praj will be instrumental in ensuring rapid deployment of cellulosic biofuel in India as well as in other parts of the world.
Globally, Novozymes is organized into two business areas including, enzyme business and biobusiness. The development, production, distribution, and sale of enzymes form the major part of its business, currently accounting for 94 percent of sales. Biobusiness accounts for the remaining six percent.