Biofuels could provide up to 27% of total transport fuel worldwide by 2050. The use of transport fuels from biomass, when produced sustainably, can help cut petroleum use and reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector, especially in heavy transport. Sustainable biofuel technologies, in particular advanced biofuels, will play an important role in achieving this roadmap vision.
Five of the eight members of the expert panel on ethanol pricing headed by Planning Commission member Saumitra Chaudhuri have not signed the final report submitted to the petroleum ministry.
This report reviews new vehicle fuels and technologies that are likely to be commercially available within the next 10 years in the United States and other industrialized countries at a level that could result in significant population exposure.
Congress should transform the $6 billion a year ethanol tax credit into a program that underwrites the installation of "blender" pumps and pipelines so biofuels are more widely available, the largest U.S. farm group said on Tuesday.
The 45-cent a gallon tax credit, which goes to gasoline blenders, expires at the end of this year.
RASHME SEHGAL
NEW DELHI
In a surprise move the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and ICAT has come up with a study that claims diesel is less polluting than CNG.
Biofuels produced from various lignocellulosic biomass such as agro forest residues have been recognized to have potential, to be available substitute for or compliment to gasolines. These biofuels derived from plant materials have the potential to address the two main issues - carbon neutral and renewable. In addition they are an integral part of the emerging 'bio-economy' where plant material is used to produce specific chemicals and bulk industrial products.
The government may have to scale down its ambitious programme of doping petrol as availability of ethanol is far short of demand. Besides, another powerful user industry for ethanol
The other day the director general of Indian Sugar Mills Association Abinash Verma made an impassioned plea for the central government to announce the final price of ethanol to be procured by oil marketing companies (OMCs) for blending with petrol.
In his news story "Is there a road ahead for cellulosic ethanol?" (Special section on Scaling up Alternative Energy, 13 August, p. 784), R. F. Service identifies factors contributing to fading enthusiasm for cellulosic ethanol and observes that policy-makers' decisions this year could shape the nascent U.S. biofuels industry for decades. It is critical at this time to distinguish the fundamental from the ephemeral and to base policy on the former rather than the latter. (Letters)
