Looking at Next-Generation Biofuel, Converting Waste into Fuel: Brekelmans of Shell

by Anilesh S Mahajan (Business Today) Shell Global's Harry Brekelmans is very optimistic about the India story. Brekelmans sits on the board of the Executive Committee of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and is the director in-charge of projects & technology. He, along with Yasmine Hilton, Chairman, Shell group of companies (India), spoke to Business Today's Anilesh S Mahajan about the recent developments and reforms which the government is pushing. The duo also discussed how the return of high growth will spur the need for multiple forms of generating energy.

We have a group in my organisation which is focused on future energy technology. This looks at the entire range of opportunities including energy storage and smart grids. This is an on-going process. To meet our needs, we would require a mix of energy sources which will include fossil fuels and renewables. We already have, for example, a very big biofuels business. This business at the moment is centred around Brazil. Also exclusively within Shell group, we are looking at next generation biofuels and then include innovation and research around converting waste to liquid transport fuels. Now this is quite exciting and much of that has been done in India. What takes millions of years for nature to do, we do it in minutes. We do this by using agricultural waste, bagasse and sugarcane waste including some plastics and municipal wastes. Many processes cannot handle plastic, but we can handle up to six percent of plastic waste. And then through the process that we call IH2 (IH square), we conduct two converter processes simultaneously and then we turn these wastes into liquid fuels - diesel, kerosene. The farmers can take the product.

The process was developed in the US through the institute called "Gas Technology Institute" which we had partnered with and applying proprietary Shell catalysts which enables this chemical process. It's a scalable technology. The total municipal waste in India is something around 60 billion tonnes. The total volume of agricultural waste in India is around 200 million tonnes. If you add the two together and convert them you will have something around 80 million tonnes of biofuel which will be able to fuel every car, every vehicle in India theoretically. It can be scaled in different ways; it can be used in a green field set up somewhere around 500 to 1,000 tonnes per day. It can also be used in an existing installation, for example, in a big factory or in a sugarcane process plant and there it can be combined with what already is there for cost efficiency. We see that the process offers a lot of flexibility.

Brekelmans: We have co-developed this technology with the US; then over the past year we have developed a number of samples in the laboratory. We have started to look at volumes. The process at the moment is what we have started to look at partnerships, specifically in India to, provide demonstration. We are also considering other markets but it is the most mature in India. Two reasons: one, it is extremely suited to India's conditions and two, our R&D sector based in Bengaluru is working on this technology. We get a lot of interests from our other partners to demonstrate this technology. So we are quite excited about it. We are very hopeful. READ MORE