Indian Energy Sector and Analysis of Potential of Bioenergy in India

Abstract

India faced serious challenges in achievement of energy security, because it is not able to provide adequate energy in a sustainable manner to its rising population. India needs energy for maintaining 8% GDP growth for next 25 years which is necessary for eradication of poverty and achievement of its human development goals. But in reality the energy reserves in India are not sufficient to meet the rising energy demand specifically for oil. In 2014–15, India imported 189 MT of crude oil which is 80% of its oil requirement. The gap will be widening in future because of high growth rate and limited scope in expansion of domestic oil production. Continuous increase in consumption of petroleum products has been a matter of great concern because out go of foreign reserves and rising GHGs emmisions. Liquid biofuels may be an option for replacement of oil in transport sector. Bio-ethanol is used a substitute of gasoline could also be produced from lignocellulosic biomass has significant importance for India. Because in India, more than half of the geographical area is under agricultural cultivation, and nearly 22% area is covered with forest. It is the biomass inventory for supply of feedstock and may use in the production of bio-ethanol. The Objective of the present study is to calculate the surplus quantity of biomass from various sources and their respective energy potential. It is calculated that agriculture and industrial wood production totally generated around 1011 MT of residues per annum. After meeting the competing uses the remaining surplus has the energy potential of nearly 5.6 EJ. The information generated in this paper might be useful for the understanding the current and future energy consumption pattern and help in deriving the suitable policy for  energy independency.