The Hindu Business Line : Biofuel use yet to reach commercial scale

A proven technology, ready investors, enthusiastic farmers, willing banks and a supportive Government - they are all there for bio fuel projects to take off. Yet despite years of talk biofuel use is yet to reach commercial scale.

With the price of fossil fuels spiralling upwards, alternative fuels such as oils from plant sources, biofuels, and ethanol are considered among the most promising options to cut costs and reduce dependence on imports. Biofuels and ethanol can be blended with diesel or petrol to help bring down the costs.

The environmental benefits such as reduction in emission of green house gases and economic benefits such as agro-based investments, rural employment, increased incomes to farmers are seen as additional incentives.

Major users of diesel such as the Railways and State-run public transport corporations are all looking forward to commercial availability of biofuels. But for all the promise India is yet to see commercial projects take off.

As of now over one-lakh hectares of Jatropha crop, the plant that has drawn most interest as a source of biofuel, has been established in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh alone. A few companies have expressed intention to set up processing facilities to buy the Jatropha seeds, extract oil and process it into biofuel. Some have tied up with banks for funds but the money is yet to be disbursed.

More corporate involvement

According to Mr Lucas S. Rosario, Chief Executive, Rojac Consultants, accredited service providers under the Prototype Carbon Fund of the World Bank, the corporate sector needs to evince greater interest. The industry is now on a threshold, and the entry of more promoters and a concerted policy initiative by the Government would help.

Mr Jayanta Ghosh, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Southern Railway, says that they are fully convinced about the feasibility of using biodiesel - biofuel blended with conventional diesel. A pilot plant put up by the Railway produces about 300-500 litres of biofuel a day and it is being used in their locomotives and road vehicles. It has proved that it is possible to produce transport fuel of high quality from the seed level.

The need is for promoters to bring in investments. The Railways is interested in buying biofuel. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand State Governments have been providing incentives for biofuel production.

At a recent discussion of industry representatives on the use of non-edible grade of vegetable oils for power production, the focus was on use of biofuels to generate power. Though use of biofuels in transportation has hogged the limelight, industry representatives feel that a more immediate need is the use of biofuels in power production.

According to Dr P. Radhakrishna, Regional Director, Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy, Chennai, the group has recommended that State-level biofuel boards be set up to ensure availability of oils for on farm agricultural activity and power plants. Engines suitable to handle vegetable oils, without further processing to biodiesel, may be developed to keep cost of power production low.

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