Biofuel role limited in India: Ramesh

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Agencies Tags : Jairam Ramesh, Biofuel Posted: Monday , Nov 23, 2009 at 1427 hrs New Delhi:

Biofuels have a limited role in India due to land limitation, Environment Minister said.

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Biofuels have a limited role in India due to land limitation and food security issues, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said, a view which differs from the official line pushing for a 20 per cent blend of such fuel in gasoline and diesel by 2017.

Pitching for hybrids and CNG-run vehicles, Ramesh said "biofuel does not has a relevance role in Indian context in view of land limitation and food security."

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day 4th Environment Friendly Vehicles' conference.

In October 2007, under pressure from the world to cut emissions of the greenhouse gasses produced by fossil fuel combustion, the Government had mandated that all diesel should contain 5 per cent biofuel by volume. Biofuels are produced from crops and burn cleaner than fossil fuels.

Biodiesels, a subset of biofuels, are produced from vegetable or animal oil and there is a view that biofuel target is a reason for food prices shooting up lately.

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Ramesh said India could not follow Brazil which is a world leader in the use of ethanol as transportation fuel.

"We have land limitation and huge population pressure.

We have to have food security," he maintained and added that though "it (bio-fuel) may play a small role but a big role has to be from the hybrids, auto-electric and of course the CNG type vehicles."

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sustainence of biofuels vs. fossil fuelBy: rajeev | 03-Dec-2009 Reply | Forward surprising to see this comment - either we are avodinign facts or we don't want to see some reasons why biofuels should be looked into: 1.only fuel that directly replaces fossilfuel on the road(40% fuel consumption is in transportation sector).in the case of solar/wind, first it gets coverted in electric power and then you have new vehicles "electric" one adding cost at each new investment.In case of biofuels not much incrmental investment in diesel/petro engines. 2.Land is an issue which all industry faces,and biofuel report of GOI itself says using wasteland not agri-land. 3.Here no food issue because Jatropha is non-edible crop and focussing discussion on ethanol is just to distract. 4. all indutsry works well with govt. support only be it oil&gas(tax holidays) or refining(subsidy support).The CNG vehicles effieciencycalculation also,Iguess,also does not take careofconsumptionrather calorificvaluenotreleventfor vehiclesbutforpowersector.

BiofuelsBy: Dilip Jain | 24-Nov-2009 Reply | Forward We have to explore all possible sources of energy. If there is proper policy enough food and fuel can be grown in this country to meet the demand and help our farmer. Actual problem is population which we have to control not the developing new energy resouces for biofuel. There is need to improve agriculture productivity to address food and fuel. Anyway one day we have to look for alternate energy and soon you will see crude at 200 US$ per barrel. We have to think of future requirement of energy and all possible sources to be tapped.

BiofuelsBy: Dr B Sundara | 24-Nov-2009 Reply | Forward The Union Environment and Forests minister appears to have got his idea wrong while stating that biofuels are not suitable to India considering the paucity of land and food security concerns. In fact, the biofuels crops that being are considered and researched upon are meant to be grown in marginal and waste lands which are present in considerable extent in the country. These crops need not be grown in potential and productive field crop growing areas. Regarding food crops, our yields are miserably low as compared to many countries. For example, our rice yields are less than half the yields obtained in China. Our sorghum yields are far lower than what US harvests. To feed our population increasing the yields per unit area must be the approach. India being in the abundant solar radiation zone, harvesting high amounts of biomass should not be a problem. We are really not making use of our natural resources adequately. In fact there has been lot of thrust on biofuels research and now strangely there is a statement against such an effort. In certain issues we need to adopt well thought out approaches and programmes must not be reversed half way through if we want tangible results. Biofuels is a sure way to fight energy crisis that may crop up in future. And the country has adequate land area. It is the question putting it to proper use.

Biofuel role limited in India: RameshBy: Dr M.V.R. Prasad | 24-Nov-2009 Reply | Forward There are number of non-edible yielding plant species that are native to India. The country has vast waste land resources, where traditonal crop- production is not only difficult; bu not sustainable. It is possible to harenss these untilized lands for the production of non-edible vegetable oils of bio-fuel / bio-diesel value. if this approach is well directed and properly implemented, the country will never have to depend on imported fossil fuels. Also there will not be any need to depend on ethanol technology if we could successfully harness non-edible vegetable oils for our energy needs.

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