Commercialization: Status and Way Forward

Abstract

Ethanol is a biofuel that is used as a fuel additive and a replacement for nearly 3 % of the world’s fossil fuel-based gasoline consumption. Currently, most of the bioethanol is produced from sugarcane in Brazil and corn in the United States, while biodiesel is made from rapeseed in Europe. The rationale for the success of the Brazilian Proalcool program, its present status and its perspectives has been presented. The Proalcool program’s mandate was a vast increase in ethanol production with a sound government-backed subsidies and incentives initially to reach the goal; however, it was the private investors and companies that were solely responsible to achieve the end result. The Proalcool program indeed provides several essential lessons to many countries around the world about the potential competitiveness of biofuels vis-à-vis traditional fuels. Considering the importance of alternate biofuels, sweet sorghum has been identified as a promising energy crop to meet the energy security and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels in many countries around the globe. The Indian National Biofuel Policy (2009) recognizes sweet sorghum as a major biofuel feedstock and well adapted to India. However, its value chain could not get popular as anticipated due to low price level (Rs. 27) fixed by Government of India. Hence, it is necessary to review the ethanol price in India so as to give fillip to the beleaguered biofuel industry, which will likely to play a stabilization role in a oil import dependent economy like ours. Similarly, a number of case studies are presented on the research efforts made in various countries around the world like India, USA, Brazil and China on the use of sweet sorghum as a potential bioenergy feedstock. The current and commercialization status of the various biofuel technologies and approaches are discussed. The biofuel blending targets and mandates of different countries are also presented.