World Biofuel Day: Govt approves INR 600 crore for 2G ethanol bio-refinery projects

New Delhi: The National Policy on Bio-fuels, 2018 envisages creation of a National Biomass Repository by conducting appraisal of biomass across the country, stated the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Rameswar Teli  recently in the Parliament.

“Government has approved financial support of Rs. 150 crore each to 4 commercial projects at Bathinda (Punjab) of HPCL, Panipat (Haryana) of IOCL, Bargarh (Odisha) of BPCL and Numaligarh (Assam) of NRL & Rs.15 crore to 1 demo plant at Panipat (Haryana) of IOCL under the Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN Yojana,” informed Mr. Teli.

The Minister further mentioned that the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous organisation under Department of Science and Technology (DST) has published a study report titled ‘Estimation of Surplus Crop Residue in India for Biofuel Production’ jointly with Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI).

As a follow up to the aforesaid study, TIFAC along with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad has carried out an estimation of residual biomass and its energy potential on PAN India basis on a further disaggregated at a level of 1 square kilometre through spatial information system. This has focussed on four major crops namely rice, wheat, sugarcane and cotton.

The Government has allowed procurement of ethanol produced from other non-food feedstocks besides molasses, like cellulosic and lignocellulosic materials including petrochemical route. Oil PSUs have entered into Memorandum of Understanding with State Governments and Technology Providers for 2G ethanol bio-refineries. Oil Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) have planned to set up second generation (2G) ethanol bio-refineries to augment ethanol supplies for Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme at Panipat in Haryana, Bathinda in Punjab, Bargarh in Odisha, Numaligarh  in Assam and  Davangere  in Karnataka.

Under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme, the quantity of ethanol supplied for Ethanol Supply Year  (ESY) 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and ongoing ESY 2020-21 as on 2nd August, 2021 is 150.50 crore litres, 188.57 crore litres, 173.03 crore litres and 209.67 (till 2nd August, 2021) crore litres respectively. The details of biodiesel procured by PSU OMCs for blending with diesel during the years 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 (April to July) are 8.22, 10.55, 0.51 and 0.05 crore litres respectively.