Biofuels

A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary processes from biomass, rather than a fuel produced by the very slow geological processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil.

• Contemporary processes mean those processes that do not take much time.
• Biomass: includes living matter, dead organic matter, agricultural waste, including Municipal solid waste, Urban wood residue, Industrial organic residues etc. It is also known as biofuel-feedstock, as it is used in the process of making bio-fuels.

Advantages of Biofuels: 

• Reducing import dependence by way of substituting fossil fuels with Biofuels.

• Helping India in Containing the CO2 emissions as per the commitments made in COP-21. 

• Addressing environment concerns caused due to burning of biomass/ crop residues. 

• Contributing to Swacch Bharat Mission by supporting the aggregation of non-food biofuel feedstocks such as waste biomass and urban waste.

• Conversion of Agro-residues/municipal wastes and other green wastes into energy, and Saving foreign exchange through import substitution of petroleum. 

• Improving farmer income by providing them remunerative income for their waste agriculture residues.

• Employment opportunities in Biofuel production & Biomass supply chain through the engagement of rag-pickers and waste aggregators.

• Debottlenecking, setting up of infrastructure, handholding of small entrepreneurs, and convincing the big companies to set up mega-clusters for the CBG. 

Classification of Bio-fuels

Biofuels are classified into different generations on the basis of their method of production. 

First Generation Biofuels: 

First Generation Biofuels use conventional method of fermentation to derive energy from energy intensive agricultural material such as extracting sugar, starch, vegetable oil or animal fats. For example, 

• Food crops like wheat, sugarcane and Barley for making Bio–ethanol. See Ethanol Blending
• Oil seeds for Bio- diesel; It is a methyl or ethyl ester of fatty acids produced by trans esterification of oils and fats. It can be directly used as fuel.
• Jatropha is most promising oil seed. Its seeds contain about 35% non-edible oil, which can be used directly in diesel engines, added to diesel fuel as an extender or Trans-esterifies to a bio-diesel fuel. Other uses of Jatropha:
  • Jatropha seed cake makes an excellent fertilizer with a high nitrogen content. 
  • It can also be used as a livestock feed.
  • It is also used as an insecticide and fungicide.

They require policies in order to link fermentation infrastructure with the Farmers. For example, creating market for crops specifically used in fermentation such as Jatropha. More obligations on conventional fuel producers to use bio-fuels.

Fermentation

Fermentation is a process of converting sugar into alcohol by certain categories of fungi, for example Yeast; Natural sugar present in barley, wheat, rice & crushed fruit juice can be used to produce alcohol. It follows the following general equation to produce alcohol Sugar ————> Alcohol + Carbon Dioxide + Energy

Second Generation Biofuels: 

It uses wider range of non-food biomass/Lingo-cellulose biomass like: 

• Waste from Agriculture, farm and forestry; 
• Herbaceous crops (such as alfalfa, switchgrass). 

Lingo-Cellulose biomass is the most abundant source of biofuel on earth and contains polysaccharides. These are more stable and are not readily fermentable. Thus, must be first hydrolysed or broken into sugars using either acid or enzymes. 

This is the largest amount of biomass available for fermentation. Therefore, it has highest potential. The production takes two pathways:

1. Bio-Chemical Pathway: Enzymes first Hydrolyse the material & convert cellulose and hemi-cellulose components of feedstock to sugar and then fermentation to ethanol by microbes takes place.
2. Anaerobic Decomposition produces Methane and other gases. For example, Biogas.
3. Thermo-Chemical Pathway: Pyrolysis/gasification techniques (Heating in absence of Oxygen) are used to produce a synthetic gas (CO + H2). From this a wide chain of long Carbon chain biofuels, synthetic diesel or aviation fuel can be made.

Third Generation Biofuels: 

It is Bio-hydrogen (hydrogen produced biologically), produced most commonly by algae, bacteria and archaea, through dark fermentation. Fuel thus produced is called Algae Fuel/Oilgae.

Dark Fermentation

It is a fermentation process that happens in absence of oxygen and sunlight, performed by the anaerobic organisms. It follows the following mechanism: Sugar + Water → Acetic Acid + 2CO2 + 4H2

Fourth Generation biofuel: 

It aims at not only producing sustainable energy but also a way of capturing and storing CO2. This can happen with the help of genetically engineered micro-organisms, such as microalgae, yeast, fungus, and cyanobacteria. These organisms can utilise CO2 through photosynthesis. 

The overall process is thus carbon negative. This pathway has been successfully tested in laboratory, but we are yet to achieve its commercial viability. However, once it becomes viable, it will be our biggest weapon against the Climate change.

Generation	Sources	Pros	Cons
First generation biofuels – For example, Ethanol & Biodiesel	Corn, Cane, Maize, Soybean, Sunflower, Palm, Rapeseed Oils.	Straightforward and well-established technology. Scalable and cost-competitive process.	Food vs. Fuel issues. Lowland use efficiency. Low yield and limited availability of arable land. Net energy negative.
Second generation biofuels	Non-food energy crops like Jatropha, Neem, Castor, Lignocellulose, Switchgrass. Straw and waste sources.	Non-food biomass and grow on marginal land. Environmental sustainability. Less controversial. Less GHG emissions.	High capital cost. Industrial scale is an issue. Not widely available for use.
Third generation biofuels (Hydrogen from algae)	Energy crops for bio-alcohol. Oil from macro and microalgae.	High biomass yield. Less energy input. Widespread availability. Carbon neutral.	Low energy output. Pilot-scale yet to be commercialized.
Fourth generation biofuels	Solar fuels. Artificial Photosynthesis. Genetically modified algae. Flue gasses.	Aimed to be carbon negative.	Laboratory scale/conceptual stage.

Variety of Biofuels

Bio-fuel often contains mix of multiple high energy fuels. This can be fractionally distilled to create multiple pure fuels, analogous or even better than fuels presently used; such as Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene.

Concept of Bio-refinery: 

For the separation of different densities of fuel from a mix of bio-fuels, a Bio-refinery is used. What is a bio-refinery? It is analogous to traditional petroleum refineries, that involves fractional distillation process.

Bio-gas

Biogas is a 2nd Generation biofuel. It is produced naturally through a process of anaerobic decomposition from waste/bio-mass sources like agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane, press mud, MSW, sewage treatment plant waste etc. 

Government has launched various missions to produce and support the bio-gas production in India

• SATAT (Sustainable Alternative towards Affordable Transportation): MoP&NG

• Aim: Compressed bio–gas (CBG, 95% Methane) 15MT/year production plant by 2023.
• IndianOil shall act as coordinator.
• Advantage: 
  • To make it available in the market for use in automotive fuels.
  • It will use of agricultural residue, cattle dung and municipal solid waste. 
  • This will provide an additional revenue source to farmers.
  • 5000 CBG plants will provide an investment of 1.75 lakh crore, 
  • 75,000 direct job opportunities and lakhs of indirect jobs. 
  • To provide clean cooking fuel for kitchens, lighting and meeting other thermal and small power needs of farmers/dairy farmers/ users including individual households. 

• GOBAR-DHAN (Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources) scheme: To convert cattle dung and solid waste in farms to CBG and compost.

• New National Biogas Organic Manure Programme (NNBOMP): To improve organic manure system based on bio slurry from biogas plants in rural and semi urban areas by setting up of biogas plants.

• Implementation: State rural Development Department of States and State offices of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).
• The Government is in discussion with the state governments to sort out various issues concerning these plants, and also with the Fertilizer department for the marketing of manure produced in these plants.

Bio-slurry

Bio-slurry is the waste product settled down after the fermentation or decomposition of the biomass. The process of production of biofuel, takes away the carbohydrates from the biomass to produce fuel. The remaining solid/semi-solid matter, i.e. the bio-slurry, is rich in nutrients and humus. Its Utility: It has a probiotic nature and can act as a fertilizer. It contains a lot of ammonia which can be converted to amino acids through bacterial action for better utilisation by plants. It holds water and thus reduces the amount of irrigation needed at sowing. It can also be used as a mixture for non-cattle animal feed stock, such as in poultry. It can also produce Vitamin B12 which is suitable for livestock development. It can also be used as a natural pesticide.

Bio-jet

Bio-jet is a type of biofuel which is either used in place of, or is blended with air turbine fuel (ATF) to be used in aviation.

• India’s first biofuel-powered flight was successfully tested between Dehradun to Delhi in August 2018 by SpiceJet Airlines.
• Recently, Russian-origin AN-32 transport plane was formally fleet certified by DRDO to fly with the 10% bio-jet blended ATF (aviation turbine fuel) made from Jatropha oil. The first AN 32 was flown in December 2018 using the bio-jet fuel which was a blend of jatropha oil and ATF.
• While developed countries like Canada, Australia and US have already conducted these test flights, India would be the first developing nation to experiment that.

Ethanol Blending

Bio-Ethanol is the 1st Generation Bio-fuel. Currently the major sources of ethanol production in India are:

• Sugarcane juice – 1 L of ethanol is produced from 2kg of Sugarcane.
• Sugar and sugar syrup.
• Molasses: B-heavy molasses and C-heavy molasses
• Damaged food grains unfit for human consumption
• Surplus rice and Maize available with Food Corporation of India (FCI) 

Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme, 2003: 

Ethanol Blending Program aims to promote:

1. The use of alternative and environment friendly fuels. 
2. This intervention also sought to reduce import dependency for energy requirements.

It is extended to all states except the UTs of Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands,

Level of Ethanol Blending in India

1. E10: India had targeted a 10% blending of petrol with the biofuel (including alcohol) by 2022. By 2023-24, 11.60% of blending has been achieved, against the 15% target set by the government for the whole year.  
2. E20: According to the amended National Biofuel Policy-2018, the Union Cabinet has advanced its target for achieving 20% ethanol blending in petrol to 2025-26 instead of 2030. It has also allowed more feedstock for production of biofuels and export of biofuels in specific cases. 
3. It has also declared a target of 10% blending in diesel by 2030.

Ethanol Pricing Regimes in India

Ethanol pricing is one of the biggest deciding factors in the adoption of the Ethanol as fuel in India. 

1. Independent price regime – 2006

When the Ethanol Blending program in India was launched, it followed an independent pricing regime, in which the Oil Marketing companies (OMCs) bought ethanol independently from the market. However, it had its disadvantages, as the OMCs were not able to receive offers for the required quantity of ethanol against the tenders floated by them due to various constraints like 

• State Specific issues, 
• Supplier related issues including Pricing issues of ethanol.

2. Fixed price regime – 2014 

To augment the supply of ethanol, a new mechanism as adopted in which the delivered price of ethanol at OMC depots was fixed, including government taxes and transportation charges.

• The decision helped in significantly improving the supply of ethanol. 
• Ethanol supplies increased to 67.4 crore litres in 2014-15 and the projected supplies for ethanol supply year 2015-16 are around 120 crore litres.
• However, ethanol production through various sources costs differently. Single price for all types of ethanol would have adversely affected those biomasses which contain smaller quantities of starch.

3. Proportional pricing regime – 2017 

• Fixed Prices of Ethanol: In the Proportional Pricing regime, the prices are fixed for different qualities of ethanol between ₹45 (Molasses) to ₹65 (Sugarcane). 
• Additionally, charges will be paid to the ethanol suppliers as per actuals in case of Excise Duty and VAT/GST and transportation charges as decided by OMCs.
• Adjustment of Inflation/Production prices: If the need arises to change the retail selling price of Petrol by Public Sector OMCs, then such change would proportionately factor in the requirement of maintaining the fixed cost of purchase of ethanol. 
• Review of Price: In each supply year, the prices of ethanol will be reviewed and suitably revised by the Government of India at any time during the ethanol supply period depending upon the prevailing economic situation and other relevant factors.

Ethanol Blending according to National Biofuel Policy: 

• Due to advancements in the field of Biofuels, National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC) has decided to increase biofuel production, to advance to introduce Ethanol Blended Petrol with up to 20% ethanol throughout the country from 01.04.2023. 

Government Initiatives to promote biofuels

National Policy on Biofuels, 2018

• Categorisation of biofuels to enable extension of appropriate financial and fiscal incentives under each category. The two main categories are:
  • Basic Biofuels – First Generation (1G) bioethanol & biodiesel.
  • Advanced Biofuels – Second Generation (2G) ethanol, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to drop-in fuels, third Generation (3G) biofuels, bio-CNG etc.
• Thrust on Advanced Biofuels: Viability gap funding scheme for 2G ethanol Bio refineries in addition to additional tax incentives and higher purchase price as compared to 1G biofuels.
• Expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production: by allowing use of sugarcane juice, sugar containing materials like sugar beet, sweet sorghum, starch containing materials like corn, cassava, damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, rotten potatoes, unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.
• Allows use of surplus food grains for production of ethanol for blending with petrol to ensure appropriate price to farmers during surplus. However, it needs the approval of National Biofuel Coordination Committee (headed by the Minister, Petroleum and Natural Gas).
• Encourages setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, used cooking oil, short gestation crops. Synergising efforts by capturing the roles and responsibilities of all the concerned Ministries/ Departments with respect to biofuels in the policy document itself.

Amendments to the National Policy on Biofuels:

• to allow more feed-stocks for production of biofuels,

• to advance the ethanol blending target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol to ESY 2025-26 from 2030,

• to promote the production of biofuels in the country, under the Make in India program, by units located in Special Economic Zones (SEZ)/ Export Oriented Units (EoUs),

• to add new members to the NBCC.

• to grant permission for export of biofuels in specific cases, and

• to delete/amend certain phrases in the Policy in line with decisions taken during the meetings of National Biofuel Coordination Committee.

Did you Know?

Ethanol blending raises the Octane number, it means fuel can compress more in the Engine Cylinder before burn, producing more efficiency. The standardized Octane number for petrol in India is 91. To achieve this rating additives are required to be added.  When ethanol is splash blended (directly pour in), the octane rating of petrol goes up. This saves up to ₹3/L.

“Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan- Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran) Yojana”: 

• Aim: to provide financial support to Integrated Bioethanol Projects using ligno-cellulosic biomass and another renewable feedstock.
  • It focuses to incentivise 2G (2nd generation) Ethanol sector,
  • Indigenizing of 2G biofuel technologies, Increasing Research & Development in this area.
  • Creating a suitable ecosystem for setting up commercial projects,
  • The ethanol produced by the scheme beneficiaries will be mandatorily supplied to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to further enhance the blending%age under EBP Programme.
• About Rs. 2000Cr will be spent for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support for 12 Commercial projects, and 10 smaller demonstration Projects to produce 2G ethanol. 
  • Centre for High Technology (CHT) would administer the project. It’s a technical body under M/o Petroleum & Natural gas.
  • Period of the scheme: from 2018-19 to 2023-24 in two phases:
    • Phase-I (2018-19 to 2022-23): for 6 commercial & 5 demonstration projects.
    • Phase-II (2020-21 to 2023-24): for remaining half of the projects.

“Scheme to support promotion of biomass-based cogeneration in sugar mills and other industries in the country.” 

It is launched by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

• Aim: To support Biomass based Cogeneration Projects in Sugar mills and Other Industries for power generation in the country.
• Incentives: It will provide Central Financial assistance (CFA) for projects utilizing biomass like bagasse, agro-based industrial residue, crop residues, wood produced through energy plantations, weeds, wood waste produced in industrial operations, etc.
• Registered Companies, Partnership Firms, Proprietorship Firms, Cooperatives, Public Sector Companies, Government owned Firms are eligible for financial support available under the scheme.
• Municipal Solid Waste is not covered under the programme.

IEA Bioenergy: 

IEA Bioenergy is an organization set up in 1978 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) with the aim of improving cooperation and information exchange between countries that have national programmes in bioenergy research, development and deployment. 

Recently India joined its Technology Collaboration Programme (TCP) as its 25th member. It aims improving cooperation and information exchange between countries that have national programmes in bioenergy research, development and deployment. The R&D work in IEA Bioenergy TCP is carried out carried out within well-defined 3-years programmes called “Tasks“.

By joining IEA Bioenergy TCP, M/oP&NG is to facilitate the market introduction of advanced biofuels with an aim to bring down emissions and reduce crude imports. 

Flexible Fuel Vehicles 

Flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) are those vehicles which have an internal combustion engine designed to run on more than one fuel, usually gasoline blended with either ethanol or methanol fuel, and both fuels are stored in the same common tank. 

• These are generally capable of operating on gasoline and blend of gasoline and ethanol up to 83%. E85 (or flex fuel) is a gasoline-ethanol blend containing 51% to 83% ethanol, depending on geography and season. 
• Flex-fuel vehicles are distinguished from bi-fuel vehicles, where two fuels are stored in separate tanks and the engine runs on one fuel at a time, for example, CNG, LPG, or hydrogen.

Economic benefits of FFVs:

1. It allows the vehicle owners to use a wider range of fuels. It can burn any proportion of fuel within the given range.
2. They are cleaner fuels with higher efficiency.
3. Import substitution: India can use higher degree of ethanol blending thereby substituting the imported fuel, which makes up 80% of all vehicle fuel consumption.
4. Benefits for farmers, as well as the government as a new market for agricultural commodities would open up.

Environmental benefits of FFVs: 

1. Less consumption of fossil fuel and higher consumption of bio-fuels on a Well-to-Wheel basis.
2. Ethanol is cleaner than naturally obtained fossil fuel.
3. Longer design life of the vehicle engine which again reduces the production cost on the environment.
4. It will help India to comply with its commitment made at COP26 to reduce the total projected carbon emissions by One Billion Tonnes by 2030.

Disadvantages of FFVs:

1. Scarcity of fuel stations: However, this would improve as the adoption of FFVs increases.
2. Variable mileage: although these can work on wider range of fuels, but best average is provided only at particular proportions.
3. Engine damage: if widely mis-proportioned fuel is used.
4. Problem of Sugarcane: Ethanol is mainly produced from sugarcane, which uses a lot of water.
5. Technical challenge:

1. Ethanol has very low Calorific value as compared to Gasoline.
2. very high latent heat of vaporization which causes cooling of combustion in the engine.
3. Ethanol may act as a solvent and wipe out the protective oil film inside the engine thereby potentially causing wear and tear.

Steps taken by the government for FFVs: 

Ministry of Heavy Industries’ PLI scheme for Automobile & Auto Components incentivises the Auto OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to accelerate the introduction of Flex Fuel vehicles in India. 

• The following auto components of Flex Fuel Engine (capable of running upto Ethanol 85 (E85) Fuel) have been included in the list of Advanced Automotive Technology components as eligible products for incentivisation under the PLI scheme:-  

1. BS6 compliant Flex Fuel Engine capable of running upto Ethanol 85 (E85) fuel
2. Heated Fuel Rail for Flex Fuel Engine
3. Heating Element for Flex Fuel Engine
4. Heating control Unit for Flex Fuel Engine
5. Electronic Control Unit (ECU) for Flex Fuel Engine (Processor minimum 32 bits) and
6. Ethanol sensor for Flex Fuel Engine 

• Important Notifications regarding Flex Fuels:

• Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified regarding mass emission standard for flex-fuel (E 85) or (E 100) vehicles.
• Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified in 2016, for use of Hydrogen as an automotive fuel in the country. The specifications for Hydrogen for Internal Combustion Engine have been specified in Annexure IV-W of the said notification. 
• 18% blend of Hydrogen with CNG (HCNG) has been notified by the Ministry in 2020. It has notified safety norms regarding hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and its components.
• Three E-100 ethanol dispensing stations launched at Pune on the occasion of World Environment Day.
• MoPNG’s (Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas) regulation stipulates that in addition to conventional fuel, the authorised entities are required to install facility for marketing at least one new- generation alternate fuel viz, Compressed Natural Gas(CNG), Bio-fuels, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Electric vehicle charging points etc., complying with various statutory guidelines, immediate steps need to be taken to introduce flex fuel engine vehicles. 
• MoRTH advices automobile manufacturers to start producing Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFV) and Flex Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFV-SHEV) complying with BS-6 Norms in a time bound manner within a period of six months.

Conclusion:  These steps can help in faster adoption of these vehicles. 

 Natural Gas

 Natural Gas: Naturally occurring Methane (CH4).  It is an environment friendly clean fossil fuel, has potential to play a significant role in providing solutions to the environmental challenges as well as ever growing energy needs in a sustainable manner. 

• ‘Vision 2030’: to increase its share in primary energy mix from current level of 6.3 % to 15% by 2030.
  • Focus: Heavy Duty vehicle segment is expected to grow significantly with increased highway development which is on-going across the country. LNG trucks currently cost more. But, LNG truck operators can save around ₹2L/annum/truck on fuel, which will pay that cost back in 3 – 4 years.
• Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG): 
  • Importance:
    • Causes very less pollution: LNG use in trucks can reduce SOx emissions by 100% and NOx emissions by 85% thus befitting society at large. 
    • Cheaper: almost 40% cheaper than diesel.  
    • Reduce import dependence: It could also reduce crude oil consumption in the country. 
  • Government will set up 1000 new LNG stations at the distance of 200-300 km on golden quadrilateral by 2024, on all major roads, industrial hubs and mining areas. 
    • About 10% of the trucks will eventually adopt LNG as fuel.
    • 50 stations already set-up.

 Unconventional Hydrocarbons differ from conventional ones in the following way:

	Conventional Hydrocarbons	Unconventional Hydrocarbons
On the Basis of Technology	Hydrocarbons which are more familiar to most people. Have simple methods of extraction & Use.	These require specialized methods for extraction. For example, hydraulic fracturing for the Shale gas.
Examples	Coal, Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene.	Coal bed methane, Methane hydrate, tight gas Shale gas
Migration	Oil and gas accumulations in petroleum traps – porous permeable reservoir rocks that are sealed by impervious rocks.	There is no migration in Unconventional Hydrocarbons. It remains trapped in impervious rock layers.
Rock Formations	Sandstones and limestones/dolomites are the most common reservoir rocks.	These are found alongside conventional hydrocarbons in sedimentary layers.
Formation	When dead dry matter is carbonized at high temperature and pressure anaerobically Coal is formed. Same process under the seas over millions of years it forms petroleum.	It is formed alongside the conventional hydrocarbons with within the layers of rocks but remains stuck in impervious rock layers.
Polluting nature:	These have more impurities and thus more polluting	It is mostly natural gas which is less polluting.
Method of extraction	Normal Drilling	hydraulic fracturing of rocks.

 Unconventional Hydrocarbons:

1. Methane Hydrate: Natural Gas and water found in ocean and polar regions. They occur in marine segments. It is a molecular structure in which methane molecule is caged inside water molecule lattice. 
2. Coal Bed Methane: Natural Gas adsorbed in coal seams.
3. Tight Gas: Natural Gas produced through reservoir rocks.
4. Shale Gas: Natural Gas found trapped in Shale formations.
   1. Shale formations: Fine–grained, clastic(fragment) sedimentary rock. 
   2. Low matric permeability. Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking).
   3. India: Cambay, Assam-Arakan, Gondwana, KG Basin Onshore, Cauvery onshore & Indo-Gangetic basins.

Exploitation of shale oil and gas: — 

Increased due to courtesy of sophisticated new technologies such as hydraulic fracturing. This has increased the supply of oil from non-OPEC countries.

The Government has approved policy to permit exploration & exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbons.

Hydrocarbon exploration licencing policy (HELP): 

It seeks to address pain points in the older NELP (New exploration licencing policy) that inhibited domestic hydrocarbon growth.

• Unified licencing policy: Single license for all hydrocarbons in a block, 

• To explore all conventional as well as unconventional oil and gas resources.
• To propel investment in and provide operational flexibility to the investors. 
  • Open acreage licencing Policy (OALP)that allows on–tap bidding, and pricing & marketing freedom from new production from difficult terrains.
  • On-tap bidding: It gives an option to a company to select the exploration areas on its own where they want to drill (expression of Interest), without having to wait for formal bid round. Whereas in NELP: identify the oil and gas blocks and then putting them on auction. 
  • Minimum government intervention: Government will not micromanage, micro-monitor with producers.  It will only share revenue. 
  • Data Sharing: Between government and contractor (both ways)
  • Revenue sharing: Contractors can recover costs from ‘successful finds’ before sharing profits

• Positives:
  • It has progressive provisions, easy to implement revenue sharing contracts.
  • Import dependency can be reduced by 10%.
  • It will open 2.8Mn sqkm of sedimentary basins for exploration and eventual production. Under it, Government will conduct auction of oil and gas blocks twice a year: January & July.
• Problem: 
  • Unprofitable: Contractors have to share revenue with the government from the start; Costs can’t be recovered first.
  • Lack of seismic sedimentary basin data: 52% of India’s sedimentary basins had not been appraised yet.
  • Existing contractor problem: They cannot mine unconventional hydrocarbons like Coal bed methane.
  • Water scarcity: It can be potentially harmful for the groundwater. For example, in shale exploration there can be increased level of TDS, calcium, sodium and chlorine. It also uses massive amount of water for fracturing process.
  • Earthquakes: The shale exploration is potentially harmful for the stability of round.
• Way Forward: 
  • Market led exploration works only with Open markets of hydrocarbons. Thus, bringing LPG prices to market equilibrium by providing subsidy via Direct Benefit transfer along with daily fixing of oil prices.
  • There should be a Shale Oil and Gas Authority should be setupto exploit the shale oil and gas reserves in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
  • Safe operating procedure have to be designed.

 OLAP’s Performance: of the three phases of the scheme.

• OLAP-I & OLAP – II: 55 blocks covering 60,000sqkm area were awarded in Oct 2018.
• OLAP – III: 23 blocks in 12 sedimentary basins are offered now. It is expected to gain $700Mn investment.
  • 1,37,000 sq km area has been awarded for exploration to private sector and to the CPSEs.

What are Biofuels?

Biofuels are renewable fuels produced from biological materials like plants, animals, agricultural waste, or organic matter. They are eco-friendly alternatives to fossil fuels.

What are the main types of Biofuels?

Biofuels are classified mainly into:
Bioethanol (from sugarcane, corn, grains)
Biodiesel (from vegetable oils, animal fats)
Biogas (from organic waste, cow dung)
Bio-CNG (purified Biogas)
Advanced Biofuels (2nd and 3rd generation fuels from waste & algae)

What are the different generations of Biofuels?

Generations based on feedstock:
1st Generation: Food crops (Sugar, Corn, Vegetable oils)
2nd Generation: Non-food biomass (Agri-waste, Forest residue)
3rd Generation: Algae-based fuels
4th Generation: Genetically engineered bio-energy crops or synthetic biofuels

What are the advantages of Biofuels?

Benefits of Biofuels include:
Renewable & Sustainable
Reduces dependence on crude oil imports
Lower greenhouse gas emissions
Rural employment generation
Waste management & cleaner environment

What are the disadvantages or challenges of Biofuels?

Challenges include:
Competition with food crops (1st Gen)
Large land & water requirement
High production cost
Technological barriers for advanced biofuels
Need for infrastructure & storage facilities