India to establish a center for Energy Biosciences

India's Department of Biotechnology has set aside the equivalent of $6.1 million U.S. and hopes to raise another $4 million to establish a first Center of Energy Biosciences at the University Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai.

The center's objectives are to include developing renewable energy resources to reduce the nation's dependence on petroleum and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

One of its first projects is intended to be developing new technologies to provide India with liquid biofuel; over 30 percent of the nation's energy consumption is liquid petroleum fuel.

About 65 million tons of petrol and diesel are consumed annually in India.

It's estimated that India produces about 200 million tons of waste biomass annually and has 30 million acres of poor soil. One plan involves growing high yielding energy crops on the wasteland and combining it with the biomass to produce bioethanol for fuel.

To work, the process must be both economical and ecologically sustainable.

The center’s funding comes as India's Group of Ministers intends to announce the nation’s biofuel policy in early March. Drafted over a year ago, the ministers are expected to make final decisions on it within a week.

According to Vilas Muttemwar, minister of state for new and renewable energy, the policy mandates a 20 percent ethanol blend in petroleum. The blend will not require vehicle engine modifications.

The Biodiesel Association of India has urged the ministers to make a decision soon. The BDAI president said that without the policy, farmers won’t plant enough jatropha to meet the feedstock requirements of biodiesel plants nationwide.