New Delhi (The Hawk): The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Rameswar Teli in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today informed that for biofuels, the Government is implementing the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme and Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) with the broader objectives of promoting domestic agriculture sector, ensuring environmental sustainability, reducing import dependency and saving foreign exchange.
Government had earlier notified the National Policy on Biofuels – 2018 which laid down indicative target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% blending of biodiesel in diesel by 2030 in the country. Government has now amended the National Policy on Biofuels – 2018 which has advanced the ethanol blending target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol to ESY 2025-26 from 2030. For the ongoing Ethanol Supply Year (ESY 2021-22), Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have already achieved 10.16% blending as on 10th July, 2022.
With a view to promoting the use of Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) as automotive fuel, Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative has been launched on 01.10.2018 under which OMCs have been inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential entrepreneurs to produce CBG. Till 28.2.2022, Oil PSUs have released Letter of Intent (LoIs) for establishment of 3160 CBG plants for procurement of CBG.
Used Cooking Oil (UCO) has been identified as a potential raw material for biodiesel production and public sector OMCs have floated EoIs for procurement of Biodiesel produced from UCO across 300 locations. OMCs have received offers for setting up 61 plants with a production capacity of approximately 36 crore litres per annum for manufacturing Biodiesel from UCO.
In March, 2019, Government has notified the “Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan - Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran) Yojana” for providing financial support to integrated bio-ethanol projects for setting up Second Generation (2G) ethanol projects in the country using lignocellulosic biomass and other renewable feedstock. The total financial outlay for the scheme is Rs. 1969.50 crore for the period 2018-19 to 2023-24. Under the PM JI-VAN Yojana, the maximum financial assistance of Rs. 150 crore per project for commercial projects and Rs. 15 crore per project for demonstration projects has been prescribed.
Under the EBP programme, the Government has already achieved the intermediate target of 10% average blending in the country in June, 2022 ahead of the target date of November, 2022.