Cabinet approves national biofuel policy

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the national policy on bi o fuels that allows do ping of ethanol produced from damaged foodgrains, rotten potatoes, cornand sugar be et with petrol to cut oil imports by ~40 billion this year alone.

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the national policy on biofuels, which allows doping of ethanol produced from damaged foodgrains, rotten potatoes, corn and sugar beet with petrol to cut oil imports by ~4,000 crore this year alone. To date, only ethanol produced from sugarcane was allowed to be mixed in petrol.

A meeting of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the new policy, which categorises biofuels as first generation that produce bio-ethanol from molasses and bio-diesel from nonedible oilseeds.

Second-generation ethanol can be produced from municipal solid waste and third-generation fuels like bio-CNG.

“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, and starch containing materials like corn, cassava, damaged food grains like wheat and broken rice, and rotten potatoes,” an official statement said.

It also allows the use of surplus food

grains for production of ethanol for blending with petrol with the approval of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee, it said.

Under the policy, “a viability gap funding scheme for second generation ethanol bio refineries of ~5,000 crore in six years in addition to additional tax incentives, higher purchase price as compared to 1G biofuels” will be provided, it said.

The policy also encourages setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, used cooking oil and short gestation crops.

Mixing of one crore litre of bioethanol in petrol saves ~28 crore of foreign exchange on oil imports. “The ethanol supply year 2017-18 is likely to see a supply of around 150 crore litres of ethanol, which will result in savings of over ~4,000 crore of forex,” the statement said.

Besides, it will lead to 3 million tonnes of lesser carbon emissions. “By reducing crop burning and conversion of agricultural residues/wastes to biofuels ,there will be further reduction in green house gas emissions,” it said.

According to estimates, 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste gets generated in India annually.