Year after year, farmers burn remaining stems and kaf throughout India, which means that an estimated 90 million tonnes of biomass is eliminated of 500 million tons of biomass generated. Practice lowers air quality, waste a valuable resource and accounts for almost 17 percent of the greenhouse gases that the Indian agriculture broadcasts.
According to the Ministry of Environment, the burning of crop residues up to 40 percent of seasonal air pollution in North India, in particular, carries cities such as Delhi in the winter. It also wastes a huge, untouched energy source. Re -processing those leftovers in biofuels offers a triple victory: cleaner skies, larger energy dependence and new flows of rural income.
Biofuel potential from biomass
Availability of residues: Of the total of 500 million tons, researchers agree that every season is around 120 to 150 million tons inactive. Apart from the surplus, this can provide approximately 17 percent of national transport fuel needs when it is converted into bio -ethhanol or biodiesel. Every year India imports more than 85 percent of his requirement of crude oil that costs more than $ 100 billion every year. Biofuels produced from biomass can help us reduce this account and at the same time stabilize fuel prices in our own country.
Marginal land use: According to Niti Aayog, Woestenij in India is estimated at 55.76 million hectares. Given half of this area (28 million hectares) for the cultivation and taking the average biomass yield from Miscanthus (10-30 tons per hectare) and switch grass (6-20 tons per ACRE) as 15 tons per hectare, the net biomass potential is estimated at 400 million tons per year. Cultivating these crops on marginal country can also improve soil quality and biodiversity over time.
Ethanol production: Second generation Processing of existing agricultural residues can solve around 44.4 billion liters of ethanol per year, enough to break India’s 2025 mixing goal of 13.5 billion liters. By 2025, the Indian government wants to reach 20 percent ethanol in gasoline in gasoline, the timeline is prepared from the earlier goal of 2030.
Advantages for the environment and economic benefits
Emission reduction: Biofuels produced from paddy straw, wheat peels and sugar cane bags offer a huge climate advantage. When their entire life cycle is measured, starting when collecting to burn, they emit up to 85 percent fewer greenhouse gases compared to conventional gasoline. This makes them one of the most effective substitutes for fossil fuels in terms of CO2 -footprint reduction.
Emission profit: In the Northern India, states such as Punjab and Haryana are burned every year more than 15 million tons of paddystro and it is estimated that the recording of even half of it could considerably reduce the fuel fabric use. Systematically collecting straw instead of burning the fields can lower particle levels in the air with more than 40 on agricultural tires.
Saving water: Traditional fuel crops such as sugar cane are water -intensive and muffles billions of liters irrigation water. Therefore, by turning rice straw and sugar cane bagasse into ethanol parts considerable amount of irrigation water that would go to growing extra fuel-crop sugar cane.
Job and Income Boost: The biofuels from Madhya Pradesh offers 200 crore in subsidies for BIO-CNG and biodiesel factories, which are expected to generate around half a million processing and delivery assignments. Nationally, we need comparable initiatives that can help to double the farmers’ income every year through the sale of biomass.
Challenges and solutions
Different Supply Chain problems and gaps make collecting residues and waste enormously expensive and erratic. Cooperatives form and collaborate with state -logistics systems as they have been undertaken in Madhya Pradesh, where equipment fairs help to streamline the process. In our country, biofuels from the second generation are still energy reconciled. Targeted research into enzymatic hydrolysis can reduce that input question by almost 30 percent. Although the National Biofuel policy 2018 supports 2G fuels, the progress of factories and permits has been slow. Fast incentives such as tax benefits and guaranteed scheduling access for bio-em afters is now crucial.
(The author is chairman, Indian Biogas Association)
Published on July 26, 2025
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