Think twice before dumping the agricultural waste now as the cutting-edge biotechnology has turned it into a new gold.
The Feedstock-independent technology has successfully processed agricultural waste to produce biofuel with a capacity to satiate our energy starved nation. Union Minister of Science, Technology and Earth Sciences, Harsh Vardhan, inaugurated India’s maiden second-generation (2G) ethyl alcohol or bioethanol demonstration plant, within the premises of a petrochemical company in Kashipur (Uttarakhand), India Glycols Limited.
Earlier the biofuel production derived from sugar cane and corn maize, called first generation (1G) ethanol, was limited in quantity and it failed to meet the ever-increasing demands of the oil-based industries, averaged at 5 billion litres annually. On the contrary, agricultural waste being generously available in our farms, around 100 billion litres of 2G ethanol can be easily generated.
The demonstration plant currently is capable of converting and processing 10 tonnes of waste daily, and higher capacity plants are being made that can process 250 to 500 tonnes of waste daily.
The national policy for biofuel and diesel make it compulsory for blending at least 5% biofuel with diesel. The government targets to increase this to 10% by 2017 and 20% by 2020. The targets looks remote unless 2G ethanol production technologies are successfully demonstrated.
“Such technological breakthroughs can make India stand out as a leader in the world’s struggle to save the earth from challenges of global warming,” the union minister noted and added that more such examples are needed, for the initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ to be truly successful.
News Source: Biofuels Digest | Economic Times | The Logical Indian
Image Source: euobserver.com/European Community, 2006
