Implementation Updates: National Biofuel Policy

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas notified a new National Policy on Biofuels in June 2018. On a written reply at the opening session of Lok Sabha on November 18, 2019, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas provided its implementation steps.

Government measures and achievements

• The percentage of Ethanol in Ethanol blended petrol has been increased from 1.53% in 2013-14 to 4.22% in 2017-18
• GoI has procured 180 crore litres of ethanol against the target of 225 crore litres for the year 2018-19
• The total Ethanol production capacity of the country is 355 crore litres per annum.

Current Government schemes on Biofuels

• The Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable scheme aims at establishing 5000 compressed bio gas plants across the country by 2023.
• The Oil Marketing Companies that are part of the Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme can sell blended petrol with maximum ethanol percentage of 10%.

Salient Features of the Policy

• The Biofuels will be categorized as Basic Biofuels and Advanced Biofuels.
• Government will provide incentives, viability gap funding and off-take insurance for advanced biofuels. Advanced Biofuels are derived from non-food feedstocks. They are also known as second-generation biofuels.
• According to the new policy, B-molasses, damaged food grains, sugarcane juice and surplus food grains can be used for ethanol production
• A supply chain will be set up for the production of biodiesel. It is to be produced from non-edible oil seeds, short gestation crops and used cooking oil
• The Policy defines the roles and responsibilities of all the ministries and other concerned departments that are involved in production and supply of Biodiesel.