Wednesday 28 November 2007

India to replace 10% transport fuels with biofuels by 2017

India will replace 10% of its transport fuels with biofuels in the next 10 years to cut carbon emissions, petroleum secretary M. S. Srinivasan has announced.

India is mixing ethanol extracted from sugarcane in petrol and experimenting with doping diesel with non-edible oils such as jathropha, targeting a 5% ethanol blend. The country consumed 9.3 million tonnes of petrol and 42.8 million tonnes of diesel in 2006-07.

The quantity of ethanol in petrol will be raised to 10% and biodiesel will be tested on a pilot basis.

Certain cautions have been suggested, such as mainland cultivable area should not be sacrificed for growing plants like jatropha as it may impact the country's food security. The success of the biofuels programme will also depend on feedstock prices.

Second generation biofuels, produced from agriculture residue and household waste, will be the next area of research in India.

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