Biofuels

Context:

Union Petroleum & natural gas minister outlined that Global Biofuels Alliance will work on the definition and specification of biofuels.

More on News:

• Reducing Import Dependency: With E20 (20% ethanol blending with petrol) implementation by 2025, India will save about `45,000 crore in oil imports and 63 MT of oil annually.
• Growth in Ethanol Market: As per the estimates of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas, the global ethanol market was valued at $99.06 billion in 2022 and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% by 2032 and surpass $162.12 billion by 2032.
• Further Potential: According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), there will be 3.5-5x biofuels growth potential by 2050 due to net zero targets, creating a huge opportunity for India.

About Global Biofuels Alliance:

• The GBA has been launched with nine initiating members–India, US, Brazil, Argentina, Bangladesh, Italy, Mauritius, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates–while Canada and Singapore are observer countries. 
• GBA Members constitute major producers and consumers of biofuels. 
  • For Example: USA (52 per cent), Brazil (30 percent) and India (3 percent), contribute about 85 per cent share in production and about 81 per cent in consumption of ethanol.
• Aim: To promote the development and deployment of biofuels as a low-carbon pathway to sustainable energy.
• Significance: 
  • Bolster’s biofuels markets, 
  • Encourage the development of relevant standards, 
  • Facilitate sustainable global biofuels trade and information sharing, and 
  • Promote collaboration with international biofuels organizations.

What are Biofuels?

• Biofuel is a type of renewable energy source derived from microbial, plant, or animal materials. For Example: Ethanol, biodiesel and biogas.
• They are categorized based on their source, with each category known as a “generation.” 
• Important Biofuel categories in India: 
• Bioethanol:  Ethanol produced from biomass such as sugar containing materials, like sugarcane, sugar beet, sweet sorghum etc.
• Biodiesel:  a methyl or ethyl ester of fatty acids produced from non-edible vegetable oils, acid oil, used cooking oil or animal fat and bio-oil;
• Drop-in fuels: Any liquid fuel produced from Biomass, agri-residues, wastes such as Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW), Plastic wastes, Industrial wastes etc .
• Bio-CNG: Purified form of bio-Gas whose composition & energy potential is similar to that of fossil based natural gas and is produced from agricultural residues, animal dung, food waste, MSW and Sewage water.

Various Government Initiatives to Promote Biofuels:

• Repurpose Cooking Oil (RUCO) initiative: It is a project that plans to convert vegetable oils, animal fats or restaurant grease that has already been used in cooking into biodiesel for running diesel vehicles, or indeed any equipment that uses diesel.
• Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme: It is implemented  throughout the country except Union Territories of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands, wherein OMCs sell petrol blended with 10% ethanol.
  • According to the Roadmap for ethanol blending in India 2020-2025 report from NITI Aayog, India will need to increase ethanol production capacity from the expected 3.3 billion litres (in 2020–2021) to at least 10.2 billion litres (5.5 billion litres from sugarcane and 4.7 billion litres from grains) by 2025.
• National Policy on Biofuels-2018: The policy has the objective of reaching 20% ethanol-blending and 5% biodiesel-blending by the year 2030.
• Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN Yojana, 2019: It aims to create an ecosystem for setting up commercial projects and to boost Research and Development in the 2G Ethanol sector.
• Various Measures: The major interventions include:
  • administrative price mechanism for ethanol, 
  • simplifying the procurement procedures of OMCs, 
  • amending the provisions of Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951 and enabling lignocellulosic route for ethanol procurement.

Benefits of Biofuels:

• Reduce Greenhouse Gases:Studies suggest that biofuels reduce greenhouse gases by up to 65 percent. Fossil fuels, when burnt, produce large amounts of greenhouse gases, i.e., carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.
• Reducing Foreign Oil Dependency: Opting for renewable energy like biofuel will help reduce dependence on foreign oil in combination with other sustainable measures. 
  • Government is making all efforts to reduce import dependence. India’s oil and oil equivalent gas import dependence in 2014-15 and 2015-16 were 68.9% and 72.2% respectively and during April-January, 2020-21 is 77.1%.
• Sustainability: A significant benefit of using biogas or biofuel is that it’s more sustainable than its fossil fuel counterpart.
• Efficient Fuel: Biofuel is made from renewable resources and is relatively less flammable than fossil diesel. Plus, it has significantly better lubricating properties than its counterpart.
• For Example: SpiceJet flew India’s first biofuel flight, from Dehradun to Delhi.
• Lower Levels of Pollution: Since biofuels can be made from renewable resources, they cause less pollution to the planet.
• Converting waste into energy: Biofuels can be produced from a variety of waste materials, including agricultural waste, food waste, and municipal solid waste. 
  • This helps to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfills and incinerators, and it also generates renewable energy.

Challanges:

• Rising Food Prices and Energy Efficiency Concerns: Increasing food prices and net energy loss in biofuel production makes the process of producing biofuels unsustainable.
  • For example, it takes more ethanol than gasoline to produce the same amount of energy, and critics contend that ethanol use is extremely wasteful because the production of ethanol actually creates a net energy loss while also increasing food prices. 
• Biofuels vs. Food Production: Biofuels have also become a point of contention for conservation groups, who argue that bio-crops would go to better use as a source of food rather than fuel. 
• Impacts of Biofuel Production on Land and Ecosystems: Specific concerns center around the use of large amounts of arable land that are required to produce bio-crops, leading to problems such as soil erosion, deforestation, fertilizer run-off, and salinity.
• Availability of Sources: The major source for production of bioethanol in India is from molasses, a by-product of sugarcane, whose  availability is dependent on the cane and sugar production that are cyclical in nature.
• Emissions:  When primary biofuels are combusted to create heat (as happens most commonly in developing countries), they produce greater amounts of local emissions than other forms of heating.
• Threat to Delicate ecosystems: The oils needed to produce biofuels such as biodiesels often derive from endangered habitats such as rainforests or other biodiverse locations.

Way Forward:

• Algae Alternative: To help mitigate the problem of large arable land use, In addition to using non-arable land and not requiring the use of freshwater, algae could potentially yield greater volumes of biofuels per acre than other sources.
• Harnessing the Crop Stubble: To have a long-term solution to stubble burning in northern India, notably Punjab, Haryana and Western UP, a bio-refinery could be constructed so that the same can use crop residue to produce ethanol. 
• Use of Genetic Engineering: Most countries which have been successful in promoting biofuel have undertaken genetic engineering on the crops so that the yield is maximized. 
  • For Example: Take the case of Brazil where most of its ethanol is produced from sugarcane directly for efficient extraction.
• Support for alternative feedstock for biodiesel production: While using Jatropha for biodiesel production eschews the food-security issue, it accounts for limited production. Thus, the Biofuel Policy should focus on expanding the list of feedstocks that can be sustainably used.
• Financing research and development for 2G biofuels: Faster uptake of  2G biofuels is hindered by the high costs of production and high risks, which throttle innovation. 
  • To tackle this issue, public enterprises should scale up investment in pilot projects for 2G biofuels.
  • The Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN Yojana already aims to provide INR 1,969 crores to develop 22 projects focused on 2G technologies. 

News Source: Livemint