Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Apr 18, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Apr 18, 2002 |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Trends Biofuels show the way for alternatives Our Bureau
BANGALORE, April 17 COUNTRIES and corporates are seriously pursuing biofuels such as petrol blended with ethanol as fuel alternatives of the future. India can save crores of rupees in forex with a suitable biofuel strategy, according to speakers at the biofuels session of Bangalore Bio 2002 here. According to the State Excise Commissioner, Mr S.K.Pattanayak, and the MD of Alfa Laval Ltd, Mr Satish Tandon, the Centre should consider alcohol blends of up to 10-15 per cent E10 or E15 rather than the proposed 5 per cent blend. E10 alone will open up a capacity for 720 million litres of ethanol per year and solve under utilisation in the industry as well as overproduction by sugarcane farmers. The industry currently holds 1-2 years of sugar inventories. The 11 million tonnes of molasses produced annually could yield 2.5 billion litres of ethanol. Alcohol can also be produced from the starch of sorghum, maize, tapioca or soyabean. This also opens up a major opportunity for exploring new enzymes and organisms for the fermentation processes involved. Brazil allows E75 blends. Auto majors as Ford, Daimler Chrysler, GM, Mazda are producing flexifuel vehicles (FFVs) that run on petrol with 85 per cent ethanol (E85). The US is said to have 1.7 million flexifuel cars, according to Mr Jeff Graef of BBI, Colorado. With fossil fuels and petrol sources depleting, Asian countries and Mexico will be the places to watch as biofuels are eco-friendly, cost-effective and give the country energy security, he said. However, this industry will have to be sustained with tax breaks and subsidies. Of the 7 billion gallons of ethanol produced worldwide, Brazil alone accounts for 4 billion gallons, while The US has seen steady growth in the past 20 years and has 58 plants producing 2.2 billion gallons from corn. The US Administration is considering trebling its output and also enacting a Renewable Fuels Standard or a minimum addition of biofuels in all transportation fuels. According to Mr Shashank Inamdar, Joint MD, Pune based Praj Industries, the installed capacity in the country can produce 2.7 billion litres of ethanol per year while the annual production is 1.5 billion litres. The consumption for human and industrial use is only 1.3 billion litres a year. The future, he said, lies with the enzymatic conversion of bagasse to ethanol and India can produce one billion litres of ethanol a year.
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