Experiences, situation and prospects of biofuels production in India

Inspite of several efforts and policies by the state on biofuels, the progress of biofuels has not been significant so far. Thus, biodiesel has been not developed though there were some areas where ethanol production has been growing steadily being related to sugarcane plants. This paper review the biofuel situation, feed stocks condition and the prospects of biofuel production in India. Though, several states have been promoting Jatropha but eventually in the coming years, the grower farmers were not motivated by it. Majority of the farmers has uprooted and replaced Jatropha with other agricultural crops. Also, since Jatropha required several processes in order to convert into biodiesel oil, some industry would prefer to rely on hassle free imported biofuels such as palm oil in place of Jatropha. The high competition of ethanol against potable alcohol needs a clear and strong strategy to increase the ethanol demand. Also, several studies of the state had shown that some were quite promising while some were not that worth mentioning. Therefore, doubt still arises if the programmes should continue on a large scale.