BANGALORE, INDIA:Biofuel is certainly the next big thing that is happening world over. And the Emtech India 2010 would have been incomplete without a session on biofuels and its implications.
 
Biofuels made from plant materials are of keen interest, though it accounts for only three per cent of the total transport fuels, commented K V Subramaniam, president and CEO, Reliance Life Sciences, while talking at EmTech India 2010 today on how biofuels would change the paradigm of transportation.
 
He said that in India the total current consumption of biofuels is 11 million MT while the percentage penetration of biofuel opportunity is 24 per cent.
 
“Biofuel represent a significant opportunity globally. In India, biofuels can contribute significantly not only to a better energy security but also to the socio economic transformation in the form of higher farming income, better quality of rural life and productive use of waste lands,” Subramaniam commented.
 
“While first-generation technologies are commercially used, several second-generation technologies are being developed like hybrids, transgenics and better methods of conversion and fermentation techniques. Therefore biotechnology has an important role to play in the second-generation technologies.”
 
Additionally, Subramaniam gave a comparative analysis of bioethanol and biodiesel in terms of energy efficiency, productivity and cost competitiveness.

“At current seed prices, biodiesel is not competitive while bioethanol is competitive at USD $ 40 per bbl,” he said.

Commenting on the recent biofuel policy of India, Subramaniam said the policy is an encouraging one and the government of India has been promoting alternative fuel. “Through the policy the government has provided a lot of fiscal benefits to the biofuel manufacturers and this will give a boost to the industry.”