National Policy on Biofuels

Government has notified the new National Policy on Biofuels – 2018 on 08.06.2018. MNRE has set an indicative target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% blending of biodiesel in diesel to be achieved by 2030. The percentage of the same currently stands at around 2% for petrol and less than 0.1% for diesel.

Salient Features

  • The Policy categorises biofuels as “Basic Biofuels” viz. First Generation (1G) bioethanol & biodiesel and “Advanced Biofuels” - Second Generation (2G) ethanol, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to drop-in fuels, Third Generation (3G) biofuels, bio-CNG etc. to enable extension of appropriate financial and fiscal incentives under each category.
  • The Policy expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing use of sugarcane juice, sugar containing materials like sugar beet, sweet sorghum, starch containing materials like corn, cassava, damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, rotten potatoes, unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.
  • The Policy encourages setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, used cooking oil, short gestation crops.
  • The Policy allows use of surplus food grains for production of ethanol for blending with petrol with the approval of National Biofuel Coordination Committee.

Benefits

  • Some of the expected benefits from this policy include – Reduce import dependency, cleaner environment, increased health benefits, proper Municipal Solid Waste management, infrastructural investment in rural areas, higher employment generation, additional income to farmers etc.

Rare Earth Elements

  • Rare Earth (RE) elements are a set of 17 chemical elements found in the Earth’s crust that are vital to many modern technologies. These include the 15 Lanthanides, plus Scandium and Yttrium in the periodic table.
  • The 17 Rare Earths are Cerium (Ce), Dysprosium (Dy), Erbium (Er), Europium (Eu), Gadolinium (Gd), Holmium (Ho), Lanthanum (La), Lutetium (Lu), Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium (Pr), Promethium (Pm), Samarium (Sm), Scandium (Sc), Terbium (Tb), Thulium (Tm), Ytterbium (Yb), and Yttrium (Y).
  • Cerium is the most abundant Rare Earth element while Promethium, is radioactive.
  • They have similar chemical properties as the Lanthanides.
  • These elements are called Rare Earths because their uneven distribution on the Earth’s crust makes it difficult to extract large quantities from any single place.
  • Use: Owing to their unique luminescent, magnetic and electrochemical properties, they find application in numerous industries including national defence, computers, consumer electronics, communications, advanced transportation, healthcare, clean energy, space, and environmental mitigation among others.
  • According to the Rare Earth Technology Alliance (RETA), the size of the Rare Earths sector is between 10-15 billion dollars. About 100,000 - 110,000 tonnes of Rare Earth elements are produced annually around the world, with China refining 80%-90% of the world’s total output.

Rare Earth Elements in India

  • India has a Rare Earth element reserve of 6.9 million MT. Production stood at 1,800 MT in 2018. IREL (India) Limited is engaged in mining and production of beach sand minerals and Rare Earth compounds. The main minerals separated by IREL from the beach sands are ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene, silimanite, garnet, zircon and monazite. IREL also produces uranium, thorium and Rare Earth salts.
  • Rare Earth elements contribute to a nation’s economy and security. Some of them are considered as strategic because of their use in defence and energy sectors.

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