India Rising to the Top of the Bioeconomy

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) To measure the impact that advanced biofuels are having in India, consider that the World Biofuels Day program featured, on stage, Prime Minister Modi, the minister for agriculture, the minister for road transport & highways, shipping and river development; the minister of consumer affairs and food; the minister of science & technology and climate change; the minister of finance, the minister of petroleum & natural gas and entrepreneurship.

For star-studded drawcards, it is the most glamorous national event ever held solely for the advanced bioeconomy.

Specifically, they were gathered to celebrate World Biofuels Day and to inaugurate an advanced methanation plant and a CO2 to lipids technology. But the event has more significance, as they always do when so many gather in one place, at one time, for real dialogue on the real issues.

For many of the issues that face India, not all, find solutions in the bioeconomy. The search for jobs, for mitigation of the net emissions created by transport, and the goal of creating more insulation for the Indian economy against the rollercoaster of petroleum prices via diversification of the energy supply.

Now, India is a refining nation and a consuming nation when it comes to petroleum, but not really a producer. So, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas is more open to alternatives than ministries in producer nations.

The goals of that unit at the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas are worth noting. They are:

1) To Take forward the Bio Ethanol, Bio Diesel & Waste to Bio Fuel programs in India
2) Suggest initiatives for Oil Marketing Companies in India to promote Bio Fuels
3) Suggest areas of Research &Development by IOL/BPCl
4) To study current status of Bio fuel blending program, suggest ways to overcome the hurdles, suggest field studies and pilot program for higher % blends
5) To Study the blending programs of leading countries and suggest best practices to be adopted by India for sustainable Bio Fuel Program
6) To achieve total co ordination between Bio Diesel and Ethanol Industry to enhance production.
7) To co ordinate with bulk users such as Road Transport Corporations, Indian railways, Indian Defense, Shipping Industry and achieve reduction in consumption of fossil fuels
8) To achieve inter ministerial co ordination with other ministries such as Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Panchayat Raj, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Minister of Environment & Forests, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Department of Chemical & Fertilizer, Ministry of Agriculture for feed stock production and supply chain Management
9) To conduct Road Shows, Workshops, Seminars and other such awareness programs to popularize and increase bio fuel consumption
10) To suggest Road Map for effective implementation of Bio fuel policy in India
11) To Collate and recommend the efforts being made by various other Ministries, Industry, Academia, Research Institution and put forth to the steering Committee

#1 ... With 12 locations identified by the oil marketing companies to produce biofuel, the three companies will invest $2 billion in R&D to help achieve the national goals of reducing fossil fuel imports by 10% by 2022. Indian Oil Corp said it would boost production at its biofuels plants to 100 metric tons per day from the current 12 tons.

#2 ... LiveMint reports that a whopping $655.25 million will be destined to helping sugarcane mills invest in ethanol production capacity that will allow them to reduce sugar production surpluses.

#3 In June we reported that Indian Oil plans to invest $132.6 million in second-generation ethanol facility that will use crop waste, likely sugarcane, as feedstock in Uttar Pradesh. READ MORE