Biofuel from damaged grains

The Government has decided to leapfrog directly to BS-VI quality w.e.f. 1 April 2020 across the country considering the rise in environmental pollution, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha (Parliament) on 24 June 2019.

The Government has started supply of BS-VI auto fuel in National Capital Territory of Delhi from 1 April 2018, he added of the one of the worst pollution-hit areas.

Further, in line with the directions issued by Ministry, supply of BS-VI auto fuel has started in 10 districts of NCR and three other districts/cities, Karauli, Dhaulpur and city of Agra, since 1 April 2019, said the Minister.

The Minister also highlighted National Policy on Biofuels-2018, which was notified on 8 June 2018 for production of ethanol from damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice which are unfit for human consumption.

The policy also allows conversion of surplus quantities of food grains to ethanol, based on the approval of National Biofuel Coordination Committee, Pradhan pointed out.

Use of damaged foodgrains and surplus foodgrains for production of ethanol will increase its availability for Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme.

During the ethanol supply year 2017-18, 150.5 crore litres of ethanol was blended in Petrol which resulted in foreign exchange savings of about Rs.5,070 crore and carbon emission reduced to the extent of 29.94 lakh tonnes.

The National Policy on Biofuels-2018 approved by the Government envisages an indicative target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% blending of bio-diesel in diesel by 2030.

Under EBP programme, ethanol blending in petrol is being undertaken by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in the country except island Union Territory (UT) of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep wherein, OMCs blend up to 10 % ethanol in petrol under the EBP Programme.

Further, Government has approved Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN Yojana to provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to Second Generation bio-ethanol manufacturing projects to increase availability of ethanol for EBP programme.

Ministry has also issued Gazette Notification dated 1 May 2019 on “Guidelines for sale of Biodiesel for blending with high speed diesel for transportation purposes-2019” dated 30 April 2019, he said. fiinews.com