Increasing demand and growing concern for energy security has spiked various initiatives in the alternative energy domain. Our import dependency on crude oil, is more than 88 per cent which naturally raises energy security issues. The concern has been exacerbated by recent movements in international oil price. Biodiesel which can be made from various bio based sources, can supplement the oil need in the Indian scenario in terms of meeting the growing demands of the auto sector as well as meeting the energy needs of rural India through “Distributed Power Generation” etc. Demand for Biodiesel is growing steadily in International markets and also in the Domestic market. In fact, it has been observed that this growth has been much faster in the past 4-5 years.
Biodiesel purchase policy 2006 fixed a price of Rs 26.50/litre of Biodiesel in India and empowered the Biodiesel manufacturers and oil marketing companies to trade it at this price. Unfortunately, the framework for setting up the above price didn’t entice the investors to kick start the journey of Biodiesel in India. Responding to the national need to gear up Biodiesel development, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, the nodal ministry for Biofuels in India, felt the need to set up a realistic framework to establish a viable price of Biodiesel and appointed the National Committee on Biofuels of Confederation of Indian Industry to carry out the above exercise.
This report is a comprehensive presentation of the extensive field and strategic data being collective and analyzed by the CII Energy Technology team in partnership with the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy and in consultation with the Tariff Commission, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and many industry, cultivators, processing plants, R&D institutions and state government representatives.