The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) will coordinate a joint effort of the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology and the European Commission to document biomass production and bio-waste availability in the country.
Christened the ‘Sahyog project’, the Indo-European initiative seeks to establish a road map through a joint initiative on what the European Union and its member States could do together with India towards finding solutions for existing challenges and needs in biotechnological research activities on biomass production and bio-waste conversion, according to a press release from TERI.
The Sahyog project will help to identify opportunities for joint initiatives between the European Union and its member States and India in the field of biomass production and bio-waste conversion through biotechnological interventions.
At its conclusion, the Sahyog project seeks to attain the following outcomes:
A full inventory of bio-mass production (including agriculture and forestry) and bio-waste availability (including wastewater sludge) and future potentials and limitations (in Europe and India).
An inventory of ongoing and past research projects (upstream and downstream) with a strategy for optimal use of the on-going research.
A strategy toward new trends in agriculture in the EU and India towards high biomass yields and qualities in a multipurpose approach (agriculture policy).
A strong interaction with all kinds of stakeholders in the EU and India (twinning of existing projects, stakeholder workshop and exchange visits).
A road map that describes integrated biomass management towards 2050 in the Future Green Economy of India and Europe (including new biomass-based trade opportunities between both sub-continents).
A Strategic Research Agenda that will indicate the needs and gaps in research that must be solved in order to implement the road map and to define the strengths and focus of the EU and India respectively. This will also help the European Commission in identifying the priority areas for future calls.
A strong communication (including training) to improve the societal, political, scientific and industrial vision toward the new sustainable strategy.
Notwithstanding the fact that biomass constitutes 23.5 per cent of India’s primary energy consumption, it finds limited application as a commercial form of energy.
“Policy makers are happy to leave this as a resource for the poor, who cannot access fossil energy and, what is worse, make no interventions to improve the current combustion efficiencies (which are typically below 30 per cent of optimal levels),” says K. Krishnan, Chairman of Bioenergy Task Force and Member of National Council for Renewable Energy of the Confederation of Indian Industry.
“The key barrier to an industrial project based on bio energy (biomass power/cogeneration plants, large-scale biogas plants and biomass gasifier plants, second generation bio fuel plants) is a “bankable” Biomass Supply Chain which would enable project financing for projects which would have a capex between Rs 20 crore and Rs 200 crore,” Krishnan, who is also in the Climate Change and Environment Task Force of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), says.
By documenting biomass production and bio-waste availability, the Sahyog project could address some of these issues.