Appendix – 10

Prototype on: Development of Value Chain for Bio-fuel in India

1. Background and Rational

India wishes to consider the use of Bio-diesel and ethanol for blending with petro-diesel and petrol.. Oil provides energy for 95% of transportation and the demand for transport fuel continues to rise. The extract from third assessment of IPCC to climate change state that global oil demand will rise by 1.68% from 75 MB/day in the year 2002 to 120 MB/day in 2030 i.e. a ten-fold increase (Table1). Energy input in agriculture is also increasing. Part of this energy should come from bio-based fuel, which is short term renewable.  All countries including India are grappling with the problem of meeting the ever-increasing demand of fuel within the constraints of international commitments, legal requirements, environmental concerns and limited resources. In this connection fuels of biological origin have drawn a great deal of attention during the last two decades.

Table  1. World Energy Consumption (in MTOE) – 2002

Source: BP Statistical review of world energy, 2003

Bio-fuels are renewable liquid fuels coming from biological raw material and have been proven to be good substitutes for oil in the energy sector. As much as bio-fuels viz., bio-diesel and ethanol are gaining world wide acceptance as a solution for problems of environmental degradation, energy security, restricting imports, rural employment and agricultural economy.

Bio-diesel is a substitute and requires very little or no engine modification at up to 20% blend and minor modification for higher percentage of blends. The use of Bio-diesel results in substantial reduction of un-burnt hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matters. It has almost no sulphur, no aromatics and has about 10% built in oxygen, which helps it to burn fully. Its higher octane number improves the combustion.

Ethanol is used as a fuel or as an oxygenate to gasoline. Raw material used for producing ethanol varies from sugar, cereals (sweet sorghum), sugar beet, and molasses in India. Brazil uses ethanol as 100% fuel in about 20% of vehicles. Use of 5% ethanol gasoline blend is already approved by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and is in progressive state of implementation in India.

This Programme under the aegis of the NAIP, has been conceived and developed for understanding the present status of major crop species viz., Jatropha curcas, Pongamia pinnata,  Azadirachta indica  for bio-diesel;  Sweet sorghum and Sugar beet for Ethanol production. The technical Programme includes Crop Improvement, Crop Production Management, Processing, trans-esterification to bio-diesel, ethanol production, marketing potential, by-products utilization and technology transfer.

1.1.      Rationale of Bio-fuels for Energy Sector

The rationale of taking up a major Programme for the production of bio-fuels for blending with diesel and gasoline in our country emanates from a variety of factors. First, there is no alternative to the petroleum based fuels i.e High Speed Diesel (HSD) and ethanol for the energy sector. Secondly, bio-fuels are environmentally superior fuels and the use becomes compelling if the prescribed emission norms are to be achieved. Thirdly there is a need to meet the global environmental concern about the climate change and ensure energy security, reduce imports, generate rural employment and achieve a number of other objectives of the 10^th plan.

In recent times, increasing interest have been arising across the nation towards the utility of non-edible oilseeds in particular oil of Jatropha curcas as a source of bio-diesel. This is because Jatropha oil has the requisite potential of providing a promising and commercially viable alternative to diesel as it has the desirable physico-chemical and performance characteristics comparable to diesel.  Sweet sorghum and sugar beet are viable alternatives for production of ethanol in short time.

The requirement of bio-fuels have been worked out for blending ratios of 5, 10 and 20 per cents by the committee on development of Bio-fuels setup by the planning commission (Table – 2).

Table 2.   Scenario on requirement of Bio-fuel in India at various blending levels

Source: Report of the Committee on development of Bio-fuel, GOI, 2003

1.2        Present Status

1.2.1      Abroad

Bio-diesel has been accepted as clean alternative fuel by US and its production presently is about 100 million gallons. Due to its favourable properties, Bio-diesel can be used as fuel for diesel engines (as either B5- a blend of 5% Bio-diesel for HSD (High Speed Diesel) or B20 or B100). Brazil uses ethanol as 100% fuel in about 20% of vehicles and 25% blend with gasoline in the rest of the vehicles. USA uses 10% ethanol-gasoline blends whereas a 5% blend is used in Sweden. Australia uses 10% ethanol-gasoline blend.

In Europe, Austria has led the way in standardizing Bio-diesel.  Austria has made it mandatory to use Bio-diesel in areas of high risk to the environment, which immediately created a domestic market for production of vegetable oil fuel. A recent proposal to the European council to allow use of Bio-diesel in diesel engines borrows heavily from Austrian standards.

1.2.2        India

Extensive experimentation by Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Source, Indian Oil Corporation, Mahendra & Mahendra and field trails by SuTRA had demonstrated that Jatropha and Karanga oil could be a low-cost, appropriate bio-fuel in the operation of diesel engines. Recently, Indian Railways have successfully tested Jatropha oil along with diesel (5%mix).  On April 22^nd the Mercedes Benz group has tested successfully Benz Car using Bio-diesel. The emission levels are in conformity with Euro II standards. 

The current annual import bill of crude oil in terms of foreign exchange around Rs.1,17,032 crores (Table 3).

Table 3. Indian Production and Import of Crude Oils (Million Tons)

Source: Economic survey, 2002-03; Confederation of Indian Industry 2005 and The Hindu (daily) dated 24.5.2005

1.3                  Scientific contribution from previous project

            Limited work on bio-diesel from trees especially Jatropha curcas and Pongamia pinnata, and ethanol production from sweet sorghum and sugar beet were undertaken by state agricultural universities, ICAR and Ministry of Petroleum. However, very recently Tamil Nadu Agricultural University initiated few projects funded by National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oils Development Board, ICAR, State Land Use Board, Venture Capital Funds from TNAU on Crop Improvement of Jatropha curcas, Pongamia pinnata, Azadirachta indica, sweet sorghum and sugar beet. The growing demand for petroleum products needs to be addressed by dynamic initiatives from the corporate bodies especially from Tamil Nadu by providing proper technological input from research organizations. Exhaustive promises were also felt in the areas of bio-diesel production and processing by the private sector and NGOs concerned.

1.4       Economic importance of the project

Indigenous production of Bio-diesel and Ethanol will help to save foreign exchange besides ensuring the rural livelihood and energy security. 

The current project proposal has short and long-term goals and the ultimate mission of this NAIP mission Programme for bio-diesel viz., Jatropha curcas, Pongamia pinnata, and Azadirachta indica and for ethanol viz., Sweet sorghum and Sugar beet are:

2.              Goals and Missions

2.1      Goals

i)                    Development of high yielding varieties/hybrids

ii)                   Production of quality seeds of bio-fuel crops

iii)                 Standardization of crop production technologies of bio-fuel crops

iv)                 Standardization of extraction and processing technologies of bio-fuels

v)                  Economic analysis of bio-fuel crops and products

vi)                 Human Resources Development

2.2      Mission

            Identification of alternative sources of renewable bio-fuels.

2.3      Scientific contribution from the project

            The project will develop technologies to generate bio-fuels for stake-holders.

2.4       Economic importance from the project

·        Save foreign exchange

·        Generate employment opportunities in rural areas

·        Enhancing farm income

·        Effective utilization of wastelands

·        Developing improved production technology for bio-fuel crops

·        Standardization of processing and production of bio-fuels.

3.      Development Objectives

·                                Developing improved production technology for bio-fuel crops

·                                Standardization of processing and production of bio-fuels

4.      Programme Partners

The following institutes will act as partners in the implementation of the Programme under NAIP:

Lead center:

·        Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore

Partners:

ICAR Institutes and SAU’s

·        Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur

·        Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal

·        Dept. of Environmental Science, IARI, New Delhi

·        GBPUA&T (Pantnagar) 

·        Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidya Peeth, Rahuri,

·        PDKV, Akola

·        National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi.

·        National Research Centre for Sorghum, Hyderabad

·        PAU, Ludhiana

·        UAS, Dharwad

·        MPUAT, Udaipur

Related Research Institutes

·        Forest Research Institute, Dehradun

·        Regional Plant Resource Centre, Bhubaneswar

·        SPRERI (Gujarat)

·        NIMKAR Agriculture Research Institute, Pune

·        IIT Madras, Chennai

·        Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun

·        Indian Oil Corporation Laboratory,  Faridabad

·        Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai

·        TN State Pollution Control Board Laboratory, Coimbatore

Partner Industries

·        Bannari Amman Group of Company, Coimbatore

·        Ester India Ltd, Khatima, Uttaranchal

·        Growmore Biotech Ltd, Hosur,

·        Mohan Breweries, Chennai

DRDA, Self Help Groups and NGO’s

5.         Action Plan

            The current project has incorporated various disciplines for the proposed work to be done under each component. The various sub components of the project along with brief description of the technical Programme have been enclosed separately for each sub component. The approximate fund requirement along with tentative time schedule has also been incorporated in the schedule (Annexure- I).

6.         Capacity Building and HRD Plan

The available knowledge in this area is quite limited. Efforts will be made to train the scientist and technicians in various organizations in India and abroad. The possible places of training may be as follows.

·                                Dr.Prof. Jose Roberto Moreira, Biomass Users Network, Brazil-Germplasm and   Ethanol

·                                Dr. K. T. Shanmugam, University of Florida, USA -Renewable energy

·                                Instituto National de investigatdesen. Agrario, Cape Verde- Gene bank

·                                Wartsila, Italy- Power generation

·                                Prof. Dr. Klaus Becker, Uni. Hohenhein, Germany – Process modification

·                                Dr. Stefan Peterlowitz,  Germany-Engine test

·                                Dr. Joachim Heller, IPGRI, Italy-Genomics & Crop Production technology

·                                Mr. Nikolaus Foidi, DINOT, Nicaragua- Esterification Chemistry.

·                                National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Denver, USA - Ethanol

·                                Dr.K.D.England, Texas A&M University -Biodiesel

·                                National Institutes – SAUs and ICAR

7.         Governance of the Project/ Consortium Plan

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore will be the lead center and will remit the funds to the participating agencies based on their needs and performance.

8.         IPR Management Plan

It is expected that the IPR issues on the following counts will be required to be settled.

To be bought from others

o       Genes for enhanced oil/ethanol production and resistance to biotic and abiotic stress

o       Continuous esterification technologies

o       Fuel blending technology

o       Bio-fuel engine (designs)

o       Patented processes/organisms

To be protected

o        Genes of enhanced oil/ethanol production and resistance to biotic and a-biotic stress

o        Processes of extraction, esterification and fermentation

o        Value addition technologies

The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) generated through the Programme will be governed by the rules and regulations of IPR cell of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi.

9.         Bench Marking, Monitoring & Evaluation Plan

Present status:

Ø      No organized plantation/cultivation

Ø      No released / standard varieties

Ø      No quality seed production

Ø      No established production technologies

Ø      Lack of well defined bio-fuel processing technologies

Ø