Boost to Biofuels: For Cleaner and Greener Transportation Sector : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Key phrases: Hydrogen fuel cell, Flex-fuel engines, Net Zero Emission, Biofuels, Trans-esterification, National Policy on biofuels, Genetic Engineering

Why in News?

Recently, Transport Minister announced that flex-fuel engines will be made mandatory in the coming days.
The aim is to gradually shift to biofuels which are import substitutes, cost effective, indigenous and pollution-free.
Moreover, the government has decided to step up domestic manufacture of biofuels by 10 percent every year and has advanced the target of blending 20 per cent ethanol in petrol by 2025, from 2030.

Key points

India’s transportation sector contributes about 10 percent of total national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Out of which, road transportation contributes about 87 per cent of the total emissions.
According to experts, achieving net zero emission by 2070 implies road transportation needs significant overhaul.
While EV or hydrogen fuel cell based transportation may be the mainstream in the long run, biofuel is expected to play an important role in the near future.

What are Indian Panchamrits, to deal with the climate change challenge ?

India will reach its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030.
India will meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030.
India will reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tons from now onwards till 2030.
By 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by less than 45 per cent.
By the year 2070, India will achieve the target of Net Zero Emission. These panchamrits will be an unprecedented contribution of India to climate action.”

About flex fuel vehicles

The flex-fuel vehicles are those vehicles that can run with 100 percent biofuel, unlike a standard vehicle which develops problems if blending ratio goes above 20 per cent.
The flex-fuel, or flexible fuel, is basically biofuel made with a combination of gasoline, methanol or ethanol where the blending ratio may shift from zero to 100 per cent.
The entire automobile sector in Brazil runs on flex-fuel engines. The blending varies depending on the availability of biofuel feedstock and price of global crude oil.

National Policy on Biofuels, 2018

The Policy categorises biofuels as “Basic Biofuels” viz. First Generation (1G) bioethanol & biodiesel and “Advanced Biofuels” – Second Generation (2G) ethanol, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to drop-in fuels, Third Generation (3G) biofuels, bio-CNG etc. to enable extension of appropriate financial and fiscal incentives under each category.
The Policy expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing use of Sugarcane Juice, Sugar containing materials like Sugar Beet, Sweet Sorghum, Starch containing materials like Corn, Cassava, Damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, Rotten Potatoes, unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.
The Policy allows use of surplus food grains for production of ethanol for blending with petrol with the approval of National Biofuel Coordination Committee.
With a thrust on Advanced Biofuels, the Policy indicates a viability gap funding scheme for 2G ethanol Bio refineries of Rs.5000 crore in 6 years in addition to additional tax incentives, higher purchase price as compared to 1G biofuels.
The Policy encourages setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, Used Cooking Oil, short gestation crops.

Four stages of Biofuel production

Cultivation of oilseeds bearing plants from which seeds would be harvested.
Trading of seeds which involves procurement of seeds from the individual farmers and selling them to the processing factories.
Oil extraction from the seeds and transforming the extracted oil to biofuel through the process of trans-esterification
Blending this biofuel with the petrol/diesel and its disposal to individual consumers through retail outlets.

Underlying challenges

Deficit supply: Currently India does not have the feedstock even for a 20 per cent bending ratio, the supply is enough to meet about 8.5 per cent blending ratio.
Overdependence on Food Grains: India is using its large inventory of foodgrains of low quality (due to improper storage) to produce biofuel.
Earlier, they were used for fodder for animals. But the tendency is now to use them for producing ethanol. Surely, this is not a sound proposition as these foodgrains were procured at higher prices.
Originally, India’s biofuel programme identified a few oilseeds whose cultivation was encouraged to meet feedstock supply. However, this policy is now discarded in the new biofuel policy.
Increasingly, the focus is now on adopting a second generation biofuel process, namely producing biofuel from used vegetable oil, crop residue.
Poor execution: While the policy seems to be sound on paper, very little has been achieved. Only two bio-refineries with capacity of 500,000 litres/day of ethanol from spoiled and surplus foodgrain have been constructed by Indian Oil Corporation out of the 12 new bio-refineries to be built across 11 States in the country.
Currently, India uses by-products (molasses) from sugar production to produce ethanol. This is not an efficient process with low yield. Of course, the sugar producers get better prices for their by-products.

Way Forward

Effective Solution to stubble burning: Idea is to construct a bio-refinery so that the same can use crop residue to produce ethanol. However, no plant has come up so far as it may not be economically viable given the current taxes/incentives schemes.
- However, Gathering crop residue during harvest time is a costly, unless the farmers are given enough incentives.
- Also, gathering a steady supply of other feedstock during non-harvest time is also an issue that investors worry about.
Genetic Engineering: Most countries have undertaken genetic engineering on the crops so that the yield is maximised. Take the case of Brazil. Most of its ethanol is produced from genetically modified sugarcane directly for efficient extraction.
It is best that India identifies feedstock, undertakes genetic engineering on the plants if it plans to use biofuel in a big way in the transportation sector.
The use of used oil and crop residue for biofuel can at best supplement biofuel production.
Government support: Incentives for feedstock producers as well as the biofuel production value chain for a sustained 3-5 years is needed if the sector has to take off.

Mains Question

Q. Recently, during COP26, the Indian government gave the Panchamrits principles as India's effort towards climate change mitigation. Discuss the significance of Biofuel as a cleaner and greener fuel in fulfilling India's commitment in COP26. Also suggest some measures to make India a hub for Biofuel based energy consumption nation. (15 marks)

Source: The Hindu BL