What do you and your company do in the Biofuels sector?
Mahindra & Mahindra is involved in developing vehicles which can run on Biodiesel blends & neat Biodiesel. As a national policy in India, the Biodiesel is derived from non edible oils such as Jatropha & Pongamia (Karanje). Our vehicles are specially tailored to use fuels from those raw materials, though they can handle any Biodiesel meeting EN 14214 or BIS 15607 standards.
What is the biggest challenge facing the Asian Biofuels industry in the short term (1-3 years)?
The challenges facing the Asian Biofuel industry can be summarized as:
- Biofuel being derived from vegetation sources, the raw material availability is a big concern to the industry
- To deliver Biofuel at a competitive price due to scarcity of raw materials is a big challenge
- Countries are constrained by land availability for raw material cultivation and need to strike a good balance between bio products for food use & for fuel use
- Since raw materials are from different sources, the process requirement to meet the Biodiesel quality varies. So for production plants to cater to these varied raw material is a big challenge to the industry – they need to develop production technology to handle mixed raw materials or flexible technology to handle varied raw materials
- Biodiesel is currently suffering from a short shelf life or poor storage stability so to strike a good balance between production and consumption is another challenge
How is the sustainability issue around Biofuels being addressed in Asia?
Each country has their own strategy to address the sustainability issue. As far as India is concerned the following actions have been drawn up by the government:
- India has decided to use non edible sources of oil only for use as a raw material for Biodiesel
- To adopt waste land, marginal land and agriculturally non usable land for Jatropha or Kranje cultivation
- To encourage cooperative farming in rural areas tied in with a model of local production
How do we educate the media and wider world about the benefits that Biofuels can bring following recent negative publicity?
The negative publicity around Biofuels has been mainly due to the use of edible sources for fuel and in diverting rain forest land for cultivation of oil bearing trees for fuel purpose. This can be addressed if a model like the one discussed above for India is adopted. There is enough potential to use non edible raw materials for fuel use.
Which non food feedstocks do you see as the most interesting developing alternatives?
The non food feedstocks offering the most potential for Biodiesel are Jatropha, Pongamia (Karanje) and Algae. For Bioethanol they are Sweet Sorghum and Cassava.
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