India has embarked on a biofuel programme of its own. The National Policy on Biofuels, introduced in 2018, has set a target of 20% ethanol blending in petrol and 5% of biodiesel in diesel by the year 2030. However, the capital costs and operational expenditures of biofuel technologies are presently high – an issue that must be addressed to accelerate the successful commercialization of biofuels.
March 05, 2021. By News Bureau
It is important that all ongoing and future conversations about sustainable mobility give due consideration to the use of biofuels. Biofuels not only offer a long-term solution to the problem of vehicular pollution but hold potential for delivering significant economic benefits, especially for farmers. This is very important for a country like India, which has a large farmer population and fast-deteriorating air quality.
Ethanol and biodiesel are the two most common types of biofuels and are blended with gasoline and diesel respectively. One of the main advantages of biofuels is that they can be produced from a wide range of biomass such as bamboo, and sugarcane, and from agricultural residue such as paddy straw and wheat straw, which would otherwise be discarded or burned as waste. Blending biofuels with petrol or diesel reduces the formation of greenhouse gases up to 90 percent as compared to conventional fuels, and reduces particulate pollutants to zero.
Biofuels can help India reduce its heavy dependence on crude oil imports. Brazil, a developing country like ours, has achieved great success in reducing air pollution and substituting a sizeable portion of its oil requirements with ethanol over the past four decades. India, too, has embarked on a biofuel programme of its own. The National Policy on Biofuels, introduced in 2018, has set a target of 20% ethanol blending in petrol and 5% of biodiesel in diesel by the year 2030. However, the capital costs and operational expenditures of biofuel technologies are presently high – an issue that must be addressed to accelerate the successful commercialization of biofuels.
The national biofuel policy, if it is implemented well, holds great potential for rural development, employment generation, and economic benefits. To do this, some key sustainability indicators and socioeconomic factors need to be examined thoroughly in different scenarios. For one, India’s huge population creates challenges for food security. Consequently, there is only a limited percentage of edible crops that can be used for ethanol production. Moreover, although biofuel technologies are advancing, it is still difficult at present to produce substantial quantities of ethanol from non-edible sources and waste.
There is a need for greater investment, research, market interest, and public sector participation in biofuel production. To achieve even a 10% blend of ethanol with petrol at present will require about 1,100 million litres of ethanol. The current production is nowhere near enough. If we are to achieve the levels of production required to match our national targets, the national biofuel policy will need well-directed economic, environmental and policy support.
“Green” industrial policies for biofuels can encourage investments and innovations in the sector, monitored and regulated by a watchdog. Government intervention can greatly help in incentivizing biofuel production and blending and in establishing the necessary logistics setup. One hopes that the Union Budget in coming years will give due attention and extend fiscal support to the biofuel sector. It would be good, too, to have different taxes for fossil fuels and biofuels, and clarity on the duty structure.
In recent years, many countries have sharpened their focus on implementing or expanding their ethanol policies; this includes developing countries like Brazil and Vietnam as well as developed nations such as UK, Japan, and Canada, to name a few. Almost all these policies address two crucial aspects: environmental benefits and farmer benefits–a reflection of their growing awareness on environmental issues and their focus on sustainable economic growth.
India has very large population of underserved farmers in the world, and the biofuels industry could go a long way towards improving their economic condition. Agricultural residues and other biomass are useful not only for producing biofuels but also for manufacturing high-value products such as bio-resins, dissolving pulp, bio-asphalt etc., which can replace fossil-based and other environmentally detrimental raw materials in many industries. This is highly significant as it provides farmers with an additional avenue for income. Walking the biofuel-led path could prove to be a very important part indeed of India’s journey towards reducing its carbon footprint and achieving sustainable, all-round growth for both our farmers and our industries.
- Faizur Rehman, Head of Bio2X, Fortum India
