Bharat Petroleum, the second largest Indian Oil marketing company and one of India’s leading integrated energy companies, has recognized the strategic importance of biofuels in India on the occasion of World Biofuel Day.
World Biofuel Day is observed every year on 10 August to create awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels. The day honors research experiments done by the inventor of the diesel engine, Sir Rudolph Christian Karl Diesel, who powered an engine with peanut oil in 1893.
Read in Hindi: विश्व जैव ईंधन दिवस: सरकार का इथेनॉल सम्मिश्रण कार्यक्रम भारत के लिए गेम चेंजर साबित होगा
Biofuels in India will help in improving the income of farmers, reduction in imports, employment generation, wealth creation from waste, clean environment, health benefits etc. Existing biodiversity can be used to generate wealth for the local population. In this direction, it can be better utilized by using dry land and thus can also contribute to sustainable development.
India’s net import of petroleum was 185 metric tonnes in 2020-21 at a cost of $551 billion. Most petroleum products are used in transportation. Therefore, a successful E20 program can save the country $1 billion or Rs 30,000 crore per year.
On the occasion of World Biofuel Day, Shri P.S., Executive Director-Retail, BPCL. Ravi said, “BPCL is in a coordinating and leading role in ethanol in the industry and we play a big role in contributing to the ethanol blended petrol program of the government.
Achieving energy security and moving towards a low carbon economy is extremely important for a growing nation like India. Combining locally produced ethanol with petrol will help India strengthen its energy security, reduce imports, enable local enterprises and farmers to participate in the energy economy, and reduce vehicular emissions among many other benefits. will help.”
Ethanol is a less polluting fuel and offers similar efficiency at a lower cost. Due to wide availability of arable land, surplus accumulated on account of increasing production of food grains and sugarcane, availability of technology to produce ethanol from plant based sources and need to adapt vehicles, ethanol blended petrol E20 was not recommended. Creates not only a national imperative, but also a vital strategic necessity.
BPCL has signed 131 LTOA with OMCs under which it is proposed to set up ethanol plants with a capacity of about 757 crore liters per annum. He has also taken initiative to move ethanol from surplus states to deficit states through railway freight transport in ethanol deficient states and to ensure higher mix in deficit states.
BPCL is setting up an Integrated 2G and 1G Bioethanol Refinery at Bargarh, Odisha. The Bio-Ethanol Refinery will increase the production capacity of ethanol to about 60 million liters per annum. The refinery has a design production capacity of 100 KL per day of 2G Ethanol using Biomass as feedstock and 100 KLPD of 1G Bio Ethanol using Rice Grain as feedstock.