The Government is exploring options of moving the Apex court in the country to seek a redressal from the recent Green tribunal order to ease out 10 year old diesel fuelled vehicles from the capital city even as the transport ministry takes initiatives to bring in biofuels in the public transport system.
Speaking at the Session, “Biofuels in Road Transport” at the Bio-Fuels Roundtable-2015, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry in the Capital on April 15th 2015, Mr Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road, Transport and Highways and shipping, said, The transport ministry will make efforts to bring in biofuels including ethanol, biodiesel and bio-CNG for public transport in Delhi to reduce carbon emissions which has an adverse impact on climate change, He said, “Bio-fuels can be socio-economic change agents as it would address crucial issues of farmer suicides, agri surpluses in the sugar wheat and rice industries and fuel economy. Higher use of biofuels will directly help reduce petrol and diesel imports which are at about Rs 6 lakh crores.
He further added that the recent Green tribunal decision merits the need to concentrate more on biofuels to ensure a country free from pollution. He said, “Highest priority needs to be given to biofuels.”
Reiterating the importance Biofuels he said, “Biofuels are an alternative to our agricultural problems. Diversification of agriculture towards energy is very essential for Make in India and the for rural and agricultural economy.”
Citing an example where technology innovation has led to employment creation, he said, “Conversion of biomass and biowaste to pellets can be a good option for gas and can give employment. One of the projects which has been implemented in Nagpur entails using cotton stalk and segregating municipal waste for making pellets. Today, we have 12 factories employing 15000 youth which are making the pellets. These pellets are being used in 1000 restaurants with special stoves.”
Mentioning another technological innovation in the area of biogas, he said, “In Stockholm in Sweden, methane is being taken from sewage water to make bio-cng which is being used to run buses. We are also forming a joint venture company to make a joint venture company to make biogas from sewage water and run buses on bio-cng.”
Emphasising the opportunity in this segment, the Minister said, “There is an opportunity to convert existing busses to run on electric power or biofuels. Now is the time for us to convert our transport particularly in metros to biofuels or electric which will result in huge savings of fuels and give a good internal rate of return.”
Highlighting a pioneering initiative, he said, The Haldia port started manufacturing 3 lakh liters per day of biodiesel which was being used in trucks, railway engines. It is the first green port in India where we will use only biodiesel.”
Stressing on the need to focus on technological innovations, Dr Renu Swarup, Senior Adviser, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India said, “R&D has been given a special place in the biofuels policy. If a country like India, with the largest diversity and quantity of biomass, cannot have sufficient ethanol to meet its targets, there is cause for concern. The answer lies in new technologies and while there are technologies ready, the challenge lies in the feedstock options. We need to experiment our technologies on a variety of feedstock. Commercial plants need to be set up with multi feedstock options.” Talking about feedstock options she further added, “We need to look at algae as a feedstock. India has a distinct advantage as far as algae is considered as we have the largest biodiversity strains available for algae- nearly 2000 strains have been collected and are being given to industry for testing.” She also mentioned that India is on the track to develop a roadmap for synthetic biology.
Stressing on the importance of the use of alternate fuels in transport, Dr P S Anand Rao, Executive Director, Association of State Road, Transport Undertakings (ASRTU) in his Address on Promoting Low-Carbon Road Transport in India said, “The best tool to fight vehicular pollution is ethanol as it contains 35 per cent oxygen and reduces particulate and Co2 emissions. Ethanol can reduce emissions by as much as 75 per cent and can also result in savings in fuel cost of $149.2 billion.”
Discussing the impact of vehicular emissions on the ley issue of climate change, Mr V K Srivastava, Additional Director, PCRA, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, said, “Road transport is the biggest GHG producing segment accounting for about 64 per cent of the diesel consumption in India. A 50 per cent cut in GHG emissions/mile is feasible by 2030 from conventional technologies and biofuels.”
Setting the context Dr A K Dhussa, Former Adviser, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Government of India said, “There is a large potential for bioenergy in general-36000 MW generation possibility and 107 million tonnes of biofuels which is enough to replace about 80 per cent of product consumption for transportation. Benefits of Rs 2 crores accrue for every 3000 tonnes of biofuels used. Recently in a key policy decision, bio-CNG has also been approved as a transport fuel.” He further added that to ensure adequate availability of ethanol, support is required for pre-commercial projects based on indigenous technologies for ethanol production.
Mr Pramod Chaudhari, Chairman, CII National Committee for Bio-Energy and Chairman, Praj Industries Ltd in his welcome address said, “The time has come for bio-based economy. Most important is the need for flexibility of feedstocks-ethanol can be made from a variety of feedstock-sugarcane, sweet sorghum, etc. A consistent policy and a roadmap for promoting biofuels can give an impetus for taking biofuels to the next level. A bio-Energy Mission or a Task Force is required to take the momentum forward in an organised manner.”
Mr G S Krishnan, Regional President, Novozymes South Asia Pvt Ltd in his concluding remarks said, “The mandate for ethanol blending in India has to be immediately increased and a roadmap to achieve the 20 percent level in the next 3-5 years has to be formulated.” He further said, “The need for supporting 2 G ethanol production is important.”
New Delhi
15th April 2015