The Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, has said that there is a large potential of bio-fuel business in India to grow from the present Rs 6,500 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore in the next 10 years.
Addressing the World Bio-Fuel Day in New Delhi, he said that the Prime Minister has set a target of 10 per cent import reduction in crude by 2022 and bio-fuels can play an important role in achieving the target. Shifting the fuel consumption profile to bio-fuels derived from domestic feed stocks would lead to decrease in this dependence on crude oil imports. The last two years has seen a lot of work being done in the ethanol blending programme, bio-diesel as well as using the bio-waste for converting to energy but more needs to be done speedily. India’s energy consumption is increasing very fast and it has become the third largest consumer in the world.
Mr Pradhan said that the bio-fuel Programme has the capacity to provide better remuneration for farmers, address environmental concerns, reduce dependence on imports and help in foreign exchange savings. The Petroleum Minister said the Government is willing to provide conducive policy environment to support development of bio-fuels but import of raw material or waste for this purpose cannot be allowed.
The Minister of State for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Mr Piyush Goyal, said that rapid strides had been made in the last two years in the field. He said that Viability Gap Funding Scheme for the sector can be evolved in consultation with the stakeholders. He then laid down a vision for the growth and development of the bio-fuel sector. He called for organising an international competition, under the aegis of the MoPNG, MNRE and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and invite stakeholders from all around the world to brainstorm and devise innovative technologies and novel ideas to integrate the use of bio-fuels in the lives of the common man.
According to him speed, skill and scale are important for success of any programme and they should be included in the bio-fuel programme as well. He further added that bio-fuels are closely linked to increasing the quality of life of the common man as they would provide a sustainable way to convert human generated wastes to energy and reduce pollution as well. The Minister pointed out that a major challenge that faces the sector is the sustainable availability of feedstock for the bio-fuel generation plants.
The World Bio-fuel Day is celebrated every year to commemorate the anniversary of the successful working of a diesel engine, run on peanut oil, by German innovator Rudolf Diesel in 1893. The national conference brought together stakeholders of the bio-fuel sector viz, the government, public sector undertakings and the private sector.