Biofuel - an alternative to fossil fuels?
I have been reading up a bit on biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels, trends in all parts of the world and in particular, in India. It looks like biofuels are set to change our world in future. Soon, we may be driving cars run entirely on biofuel. Or, is it just another mirage?
Brazil has shown the way to the world in usage of ethanol as an alternative to oil. They have been using using ethanol to reduce their dependence imported oil since the past 30+ years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil
European Union: As a key signatory to the Kyoto protocol, the EU countries have taken a lead in mandating compulsory mixing of biofuels in transportation fuel. EU has set a target share of 5.75% for biofuels. See this interesting report on EU strategy for biofuels.
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/biomass/biofuel/index_en.htm
The US: Policy makers commissioned a study "Biomass as feedstock for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry: The technical feasibility of a billion-ton annual supply". Many key influencers are talking about biofuel as a key to reducing America's dependence on imported oil. Vinod Khosla has some articles here: www.khoslaventures.com/resources.html
South East Asia: Malaysia has advocated usage of palm oil as a source of biofuel. Many production facilities have been set up in Malaysia. Indonesia - with a huge agricultural base - is also seen as a major exporter of biofuels.
China: Is also keen to promote biofuels and the 11th Five Year Plan calls for development of petroleum substitutes. Gushan, (www.gsfoc.com/en/), claims to be the pioneer in China and raised over $200 million in an IPO in late 2006.
India: While India has seen significant increase in petroleum consumption and oil import bills just keep increasing, there doesn't seem to be any concrete action plan to promote biofuels. There has been lot of talk of molasses-based and jatropha-based biofuels.
Biofuel derived from Jatropha seeds has been touted as a solution for (a) Reducing India's oil imports (b) Providing a source of income for farmers since jatropha can be cultivated in arid and semi-arid regions (c) Utilisation of large tracts of wastelands (d) Additional source of income since this can be used to obtain carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism.
The Indian Government is scheduled to announce its Biodiesel Policy in the first quarter of 2007 which is expected to contain sweeping changes to existing regulations and tax structures to promote the cultivation of jatropha and the production and use of jatropha biofuel.
http://www.techbizindia.com/Article1.pdf
Is jatropha the panacea to many of our transport-oil problems? I even read some commentary on jatropha being a source of poverty alleviation!
Of course, there is always some undesired consequences to any trend:
(a) The mass cultivation of sugarcane is supposed to have led to a loss of biodiversity in Brazil. Would we see the same in India with large tracts of land under jatropha cultivation? Malaysia recently stopped giving licenses to new production facilities based on palm oil.
(b) Biofuels are still a replacement for fossil fuels. Public transportation suffers - unless more of us demand for and start using public transportation, our usage of private transportation and dependence on any fuel is bound to increase. With a Rs.1 lakh car around the corner, the consumption of fuel is only bound to increase. Our cities and towns are yet to make investments to increase the public transportation infrastructure.
(c) Large corporates entering the biofuel market, may lead to marginalisation of small farmers.
Biofuels are set to change the fortunes of atleast 2 key industries - the oil industry and the automobile industry. Leading global companies in these sectors are keeping their options open and making some investments in promoting biofuels.
Hopefully biofuels will truly be fuel of the future!
