Government will have to take the lead in biofuel energy, Dr Ananda M. Chakrabarty, Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology

I think the promoters vastly underestimated the complexity of collecting the biomass substrates from varied sources, separating the fermentable ligno-cellulosic wastes and then pre-treating the wastes before digestion and fermentation by appropriate bacteria or yeast.  Given a lack of experience in conducting such studies at large scales, the nascent biofuel industry in India faced difficult technical problems over which they had very little control.

Given the nascent state of the technology in India, even in well-established areas involving producing ethanol from cane sugar or other food grains, the Indian Government will have to take a lead in demonstrating pilot plant feasibility and certain amount of cost effectiveness before the investment community or the industrial sector will chip in. Note that Indian investors are risk-averse and are not known to invest in technology that are new, emerging and increasingly patent-protected. Indian investors will only invest when a technology is no longer patent-protected and can be legally copied. Thus any early development of biofuel technology will need generous support from the Government, as the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is providing right now.

Compared to petroleum or nuclear energy, the near-term contribution by the biofuel industry is minimal, principally due to lack of technological innovations. Old technologies of producing ethanol from starchy foodgrain are the only recourse now.

Again, given the fact that DBT has set up three new centers devoted to bio-energy generation, a beginning has been made. To achieve real growth, the academic and the industrial sectors will have to work together for a common purpose of biofuel production from biomass, which rarely happens in India.

The present culture of lack of entrepreneurship in the academic or industrial sector needs to be changed, not only for the biofuel industry, but for encouraging industrial productivity in India. There is very little evidence of entrepreneurship in the Indian academic sector. How many start-up companies in India have been founded by university professors, as opposed to, say, that in the United States? Essentially, negligible. So this will be a start.

In the United States, a major effort is being directed to cultivating fast-growing weeds in marginal or arid lands for year round use of such weeds as biomass. Genetic improvements in the composition, stress-resistance and growth rates of the weeds are being accomplished. Being a country of high bio-diversity, India has a variety of weeds that can be grown in marginal lands with a favorable ligno-cellulose composition for their rapid enzymatic degradation and fermentation. The Indian Government needs to encourage such efforts.

Alternatives to biomass as a source, such as marine or fresh-water algae, that can be grown in shallow ponds under sunny skies, is an area that needs attention, given the favorable weather conditions all over India. Algae can not only produce oily products, known as bio-diesel, but can be genetically improved to sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the form of insoluble inorganic carbonates, which can be stored underground forever. This will lead to both algal oil production and sequestration of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thereby potentially contributing to reducing global warming.

As stated earlier, Indian institutional leaders are risk-averse and will rarely invest in an effort that is not simply copying. Indian industries, pharmaceutical industry for example, thrive on copying. Innovation is a buzz word in India, but there is no evidence of any major industrial innovation, including in the energy sector, in India. Thus raising capital for a truly innovative idea, product or enterprise is a difficult goal to attain in India.