Cellulosic Ethanol in India – Status and Trends

2010-11-25 05:08 AM

altenergygeek
Chennai, India
Posts: 7

Cellulosic ethanol represents the second generation biofuels in the context of ethanol. Rather than derive ethanol from starchy feedstocks (most of which happen to food crops), cellulosic ethanol derives the fuel from waste crops and waste biomass which are rich in cellulose.

India produces about 300 MT of crop waste every year; this can translate to about 80-100 million T of ethanol using the cellulosic route. That's much more than the total amount of gasoline that India consumes.

On the face of it, things look rosy for cellulosic ethanol in India, especially when you consider that a large part of our import bill goes towards buying oil. However, as this post from EAI Blog claims, all things are not rosy with cellulosic ethanol in India with just a few firms doing any major research at all.

Why do you think so little emphasis has been given to cellulosic ethanol by the corporates and even the research units in India? And how do you think the government can play a role in catalysing this domain?