On August 9, 1893, Sir Rudolf Diesel conducted an experiment in which, for the first time in history, he ran a mechanical engine with peanut oil. The significance of this event lies in the avenues of possibilities it opened up, starting with the foresight that vegetable oil could potentially be used as fuel. This experiment is commemorated by naming it ‘World Biofuel Day.’
Biofuels don’t only ensure a cleaner environment but also aid in the generation of employment and income, specifically in rural regions. As the name suggests, biofuels are derived from biomass or bio waste via what is called a ‘valorization’ process. Valorization is the process of reusing, recycling, and composting waste in order to convert it into materials, chemicals, fuels, or other sources of energy.
With India being an agriculture-based economy, there is great potential for the production of fuel with biowaste. “Goa in particular being a tourism hub, produces a huge quantity of biowaste, food waste in particular, which can be converted into fuels,” says Dr Pranay Morajkar, assistant professor at the School of Chemical Sciences, Goa University. He adds, “Moreover, Goa has rich flora and is blessed with a vast coastline, khazan lands, or other wastelands.” This means the Goan habitat has a high potential for the cultivation of biofuel-based species such as seaweeds.
“Seaweeds hold the potential to produce biofuels of high energy density and lower emission potential,” says Dr Pranay. “These biofuel formulations can be tailored chemically and structurally to either add to or replace to fossil fuels, which are our regular fuels, such as petrol and diesel.”
Biofuel can be produced from a broad spectrum of feed such as organic based feed, biomass – essentially low cost plant dry matter, such as coconut and vegetation waste, microalgae, and seaweed. “Goa’s forest site biomass accounts for more than 4.7 million tons which can be good source for biofuel,” says Dr Sanjukta Subudhi, Senior Fellow and Area Convener (Head), Microbial Biofuels and biochemical Department. “Further, Goa has over a 100 kilometre long coastal line and houses more than a hundred species of seaweed,” she adds. “The coastal land can be effectively used to grow marine microalgae and seaweed to generate biomass using marine water and atmospheric carbon dioxide without competing for potable water and land.”
When biofuels are added as additives to diesel, they volumetrically replace a significant percentage of fossil fuels. This also serves as a catalyst to improve the combustion efficiency of diesel and petrol – which means that it converts fuel to energy in a way that a higher percentage of the fuel remains useful. “This, in turn, means that there is more energy efficiency at a lower fuel consumption rate, which is beneficial to both, the energy sector as well as the environment,” explains Dr Pranay.
Even though biofuels are not a carbon-free resource, they are derived from the abundant bio-waste resource, which in principle are derived from carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Biofuels use the carbon emissions they contribute to in order to be produced, and so, the cyclic process, in a way makes the net carbon emissions zero. “However, to reduce the overall cost and to make the overall process zero waste, everything that goes into the feed for production has to be utilised completely to produce other forms of biocommodities apart from biofuel as well,” says Dr Sanjukta.
Currently, the transportation sector of Goa amounts to 40 percent of Goa’s fossil energy needs followed by the industrial and domestic sectors. Biofuels have great potential to replace a significant portion of these energy requirements. “I know a lot of emphasis is presently given to electric vehicles which need to be electricity to be charged regularly. However, have we ever wondered where and how this electric energy comes from for EVs to run?” Dr Pranay asks. “These are again generated from fossil fuels in power plants and supplied to us via electric grids, so EVs in this way are not really a green solution,” he adds.
However, at this point, a direct transition into biofuels is not a possibility due to technical limitations. “This is also linked with feed availability and fuel requirement in the state,” says Dr Sanjukta. The national and state policy factors in here as well. “Goa needs an energy mix of biofuel with other cleaner forms of energies to become self-sustainable in energy before an affordable direct transition to any one form of energy can be made in the future,” says Dr Pranay.
“But a direct transition to a so-called "cleaner form of energy" simply by replacing our old technology with imported new technology is not really an affordable or sustainable solution,” he adds. “This will only make us more and more dependent on foreign countries for our energy security.”
This means that Goa needs to develop its own energy technologies. “I believe ‘Make in India’ is a good step towards that,” says Dr Pranay. However, for any indigenous technology development, it is important to have policy and financial support for research and development in both fundamental and applied Biofuel research, “Presently, there isn't any funding support in this regard, especially in Goa,” he adds.
A representative of the Goa Energy Development Agency says, “The research has not started yet, a plan is being laid out. After this, an outside consulting agency will be hired to conduct the research on biofuels. Depending on the results, action will be taken.”
Such research and its execution have economic benefits as well: “Production of bio-commodities can help in creating employment opportunities for locals and women, who can be engaged in activities related to the cultivation – leading to their empowerment,” says Dr Sanjukta.
“To create awareness on this issue and to provide policy support, we have organized two Indo-German stakeholder meetings in Goa so far in association with the Energy and Resources Institute from India, and Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt from Germany,” Dr Pranay says