Advanced BioFuels USA

(Indian Express News Service)  “To increase production of fuel grade ethanol, Govt. is also encouraging distilleries to produce ethanol from maize; & rice available with Food Corporation of India,” the statement said. — The government on Thursday notified the modified scheme for extending financial assistance for producing “1st generation” (1G) ethanol from feed stocks such as cereals (rice, wheat, barley, corn and sorghum), sugarcane and sugar beet.

Under the scheme, the Centre will provide interest subvention to encourage the funding in this sector. According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the scheme will attract an investment of about Rs 40,000 crore.

In a statement, the ministry said, “To achieve 20% blending by 2025 as well as to meet out the requirement of ethanol production capacity in the country, the Department of Food & Public Distribution has modified earlier scheme & notified the modified scheme for extending financial assistance to project proponents for enhancement of their ethanol distillation capacity or to set up distilleries for producing 1st Generation (1G) ethanol from feed stocks such as cereals (rice, wheat, barley, corn & sorghum), sugarcane, sugar beet etc. or converting molasses based distilleries to dual feedstock vide notification dated 14th January, 2021.

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The statement said, “This scheme would not only facilitate diversion of excess sugar to ethanol but would also encourage farmers to diversify their crops to cultivate particularly maize/corn which needs lesser water compared to sugarcane and rice. It would enhance production of ethanol from various feed stocks thereby, facilitate in achieving blending targets of ethanol with petrol and would reduce import dependency on crude oil, thereby, realizing the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat.”

“It will also enhance income of farmers as setting up of new distilleries would not only increase demand of their crops but would assure farmers of getting better price for their crops,” it said.

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The government had earlier fixed a target of 10 per cent blending of fuel grade ethanol with petrol by 2022 & 20 per cent blending by 2030. “Now it has been proposed to prepone the 20% blending of ethanol with petrol by 2025,” the statement said.

According to the ministry, to achieve 20 per cent blending by 2025 and to meet the requirement of chemical & other sectors, about 1,200 crore liters of alcohol / ethanol would be required.  READ MORE

From ethanol to soybean, India has a lot to trade with US, says Gadkari (Economic Times)

Excerpt from Economic Times: Touching upon the subject of food vs fuel the minister said that the government has given permission to making ethanol from corn, rice and other food grains. In addition to this, the government is planning to make second generation ethanol from biomass using bamboo.

“We need to accept the policy of diversification of agriculture towards energy and power sector. We are spending Rs 8 lakh crore on import of crude oil. We are facing severe air pollution because of diesel and petrol. For the last 12-13 years I have been constantly talking about ethanol. And, now we have accepted it but it is too late. The US has a lot of ethanol available from corn and their rates are very less and ready to export to India,” he said.

He added that even vehicle manufacturers in India like TVS and Bajaj have launched motorcycles and scooters with 100% bioethanol. This is a small change without any major cost difference. Ethanol has proven to be useful as aviation fuel in the Air Force.

“One of the sectors where we can create cooperation between India and the US is the processing of ethanol. In India, we have successfully completed a trial in the textile and synthetic fiber industry where they are using ethanol as a chemical in place of petroleum-based chemicals. Therefore, we need to accept the new technology, innovations and research related with ethanol, where there will be a good combination and a win-win situation for both the nations,” he said.  READ MORE