In a written reply in Rajya Sabha today, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Suresh Gopi, informed about the measures taken by the government to promote biofuel.
The National Policy on Biofuels-2018, as amended in 2022, has identified various feedstocks for biofuels production, these inter-alia include C & B – Heavy Molasses, sugarcane juice, sugar, sugar syrup, biomass in form of grasses, agriculture residues (rice straw, cotton stalk, corn cobs, saw dust, bagasse etc.), sugar containing materials like sugar beet, sweet sorghum, etc. and starch containing materials such as corn cassava, rotten potatoes, agro food / pulp industry waste, etc., damaged food grains like broken rice, food grains unfit for human consumption, food grains during surplus phase as declared by National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC), industrial waste, industrial waste off-gases, algae and sea weeds, non-edible oilseeds, used cooking oil, animal tallow, acid oil, short gestation non-edible oil rich crops, municipal solid waste, plastic waste etc.
The Government has taken several measures to encourage investment in biodiesel production which inter-alia include prescribing indicative target of blending of biodiesel in diesel / direct sale of biodiesel under the National Policy on Biofuels, notifying of “Guidelines for sale of biodiesel for blending with high speed diesel for transportation purposes-2019”, reduction of GST rate for procurement of biodiesel for blending programme from 12% to 5%, etc. Further, “Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan – Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran) Yojana” 2019 has been amended in August 2024 for granting financial assistance for setting up Advanced Biofuel Projects.
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