Transport activity in India has increased more than sevenfold over the last two decades, its gasoline-fuelled pathway leading to a rapid rise in negative environmental externalities. To decouple the sector’s growth from high emissions, policymakers are scaling up efforts to deploy cleaner fuels for the sector; in particular, liquid biofuels have received a significant push. However, while biofuels help lower emissions at the point of use, their lifecycle impacts are heavily dependent on the biomass pathway adopted. Thus, the environmental and social benefits of biofuels are closely linked to the intricacies of the broader agricultural and economic system. This brief assesses India’s current biofuel pathway from a lifecycle perspective, identifies the gaps in the present policy, and proposes a long-term sustainable strategy.
Attribution: Promit Mookherjee, “The Implications of India’s Revised Roadmap for Biofuels: A Lifecycle Perspective,” ORF Issue Brief No. 526 , March 2022, Observer Research Foundation. Introduction: The Global Scenario Biofuels involve the direct conversion of biomass into liquid fuels which can be blended with existing automotive fuels. Ethanol and biodiesel are the two main transport biofuels. These fuels can be produced from a variety of biomass. First-generation (1G) biofuels are usually produced from edible feedstock. Ethanol production primarily involves distilling carbohydrates from sugarcane and beet or distilling starch from food grains such as maize, paddy, wheat, and potatoes through fermentation. First-generation biodiesel is produced from different types of vegetable oils such as canola oil, palm oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil. Second-generation fuels are produced from lignocellulosic biomass which is obtained from energy crops or waste biomass, such as agricultural and forest residue. Recently, the production of biodiesel from algal biomass has also evolved as an option, sometimes referred to as third-generation biofuel. [1] In the global transport-fuel demand, the share of biofuels remains minimal, accounting for only 2.4 percent in 2018. [2] To improve the situation, many countries have implemented dedicated biofuel policies with time-bound blending mandates, incentivising the setting up of distilleries and encouraging the production of energy crops. Brazil’s RenovaBio programme is amongst the most ambitious and has resulted in a national ethanol blending rate of 27 percent. Both the EU and China have devised a roadmap to achieve a 10 percent ethanol blending rate. In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is mandated by law to set production mandates for biofuels, [3] which are regularly updated.
