INTERVIEW: India's biofuel push to be driven by power, transport sectors: Biofuel Junction founder

India's domestic power and road transport sectors should lead the country's decarbonization initiative amid a greater push for expansion of biofuel utilization and achieving net-zero carbon emission, managing director of Biofuels Junction Pte. Ltd. Ashvin Patil told S&P Global Commodity Insights on the sidelines of India Energy week Feb. 9.

Biofuels Junction, a service provider in the biofuels value chain, aims to replace fossil fuels and enhance agricultural residues for biofuel supply.

"I definitely see the power generation and the energy sector as one of the largest because the impact is significant. Because the moment you start removing coal or rather replacing coal with Biofuel under SAMARTH yojana (National Mission on the use of Biomass in Thermal Power Plants), you are straightaway reducing your carbon emission directly. So that is a direct contribution to your net-zero goals or your greenhouse gas reduction goal to the country," Patil said.

In 2023, India entered into a Global Biofuels Alliance with Brazil, and the US, to increase the use of sustainable biofuels, including in the transportation sector.

"Second would be transportation. So, under SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation initiative) if there is a blending of compressed biogas and compressed natural gas scenario, that will have a significant impact because that is one of the large emitting industries."

Apart from the government initiatives, Patil also said the sector should be market-driven to achieve its potential. "Unless there is participation from the private players who are driven by economic rationale, there will be progress. Unless there is a private organization running it with economic rationale, we see difficulties in continuity of it," he added.

Patil also added that India needs to reduce carbon intensity in the biofuel supply chain.

"Right now, we (Biofuels Junction) ensure that whatever we supply is least carbon intensive so that by way of reducing the lead distance, if I'm supplying biofuel to a certain company, I ensure that it is from the lowest possible distance so that you don't use that much fossil fuel like diesel to transport that. So that is stage one. Stage two could be getting further into a scientific way of measuring the carbon emission of my supply chain," he said.

India's biofuel push

Patil said he was optimistic about India achieving its 5% biofuels blending target by 2030 and its impact on India's domestic economy.

"The reason being there is a lot of awareness globally as well as domestically on the environment factor and the adoption of biofuel as a green, clean energy is much more than what it was, say, if you're comparing with the ethanol era. More than that, the learnings from the ethanol blending are which is, why it has delayed, what were the roadblocks and those have been taken care by the government," he added.

In 2023, India produced 200 million liters of biodiesel, just around 33% of its production capacity of 600 million liters, according to the US Department of Agriculture data.

Patil said that the biofuels target will add to the economy as the supply chain will be totally domestic and contribute immensely to the environment as it will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gas emissions.

Feedstock bottlenecks

Patil also talked about the bottlenecks present in the biofuels supply chain, particularly about collating agriculture residue feedstock. However, he was also hopeful that recent government initiatives would help in removing the bottlenecks in the value chain.

In the interim budget for 2024-25 (April-March), the government proposed a phased mandatory blending of compressed biogas in compressed natural gas for transport and piped natural gas for domestic use. It will provide financial assistance to support the collection of raw materials.

"The reason being there has not been enough research and development done in this field because there was no economic viability so far. In fact, in the recent budget, the government has actually allocated funds and there's a lot of attention towards collation, collection of biomass," he said.

Patil said that some focused policy and themes are required to achieve its complete potential, while talking about bottlenecks in the agricultural residue supply chain. India largely sources its agri-based biofuel from sugarcane and corn.

"We are geared up to do more on the rice side, which is paddy straw. So there, we have a large opportunity because there's hardly any alternate use of it. Instead of burning you pay to the farmer, collect the residue and the same residue can be utilized for manufacturing of either compressed biogas or solid biofuels pellets for coal firing," Patil added.

India could also utilize other biodegradable wastes like animal fat, tallow or used cooking oil to achieve its aim of net-zero carbon target. During 2023, India produced around 35% of its entire biodiesel production from UCO and just 3% from animal fat and tallow, the USDA data showed.

"I definitely see all of these getting qualified or rather, I would say, rather viable as a feedstock for energy like used cooking oil getting refined and getting converted into biodiesel, which is happening in the Gulf countries, whatever the used cooking oil, which comes from Asian countries like China and Indonesia that are getting converted. The same thing can happen in India," Patil said.

According to Patil, the next step for India's biofuels sector will be to develop technology to collect and process second-generation feedstocks like animal fat, tallow and used cooking oil to expand domestic alternative fuel supplies.