How does BiofuelCircle’s mission align with India’s renewable targets?

At fundamental level India has renewable energy targets as well as net zero targets as you know on CO2 side, greenhouse gas emission side. Bioenergy fits very well in the overall scheme of things. Success of bioenergy will be pivotal in making several things happen for India, not just for its renewable energy target and carbon emission target but also for the purpose of empowering rural economy and creating local jobs in the rural area.

Point number two, how do you create an efficient logistic supply chain within rural setups. That’s the second thing that one is trying to do. The third is how do you create industrial scale businesses from rural area. Now that requires a little bit of solving challenges which are on human capital side. How do you create an industrial culture in rural areas so that a dependable credible supply chain gets created. And last but not the least, how do you make it economically feasible because businesses don’t get created just because it is meeting some lofty ambitions. 

How do biomass banks benefit farmers and the economy? 

Any economically viable enterprise, if it is created in rural areas, then it is going to create economic value. Now look at one biomass bank. One biomass bank is typically going to be storing 10,000 metric tons of biomass which means it is aggregated from 5,000 acres of land. It has used 40 tractor driving partners who are driving our mechanisation equipment for the purpose of collecting this biomass. It is using approximately 10 acres of land to create storage. It has a highly structured way of operation during the aggregation season as well as during the delivery season.

What policy changes would you like to see to scale up biomass-based solutions in India? 

So currently the policy recognises bioenergy as a sector. I would say one more step is required and that is to recognise bioenergy supply chain as a sector in itself.  Bioenergy supply chain business is driven by logistics, is driven by participation and it is driven by rural economic activities.

Now all of this together has sometimes very little to do with what is the end use technology that biomass gets used for. It could be used for converting it to hydrogen, it could be used for converting it to compressed biogas, it could be used for power generation.

So supply chain needs to become agnostic to what is the end use. So while the government policy currently recognises the end use technology and incentivises the end use technology, I think a similar intervention from policy is required for the supply chain.

How would you compare India’s biomass industry with that of other countries? 

India has availability of agricultural residue biomass, engineering and technology companies who have created a structure and technology framework which could allow you to convert replacement possibilities around fossil fuel. So we can become self-dependent, independent from fossil fuel for a significant quantum of our energy requirements.

The second advantage that we could have, given the scale at which we are executing it, we have a wonderful opportunity to become world leaders in this technology segment. So exporting the learnings that we have, becoming somebody who is able to drive similar changes in economies around the world and take leadership in that segment through Biofuels Alliance or Global Biofuels Alliance which is recently created. 

How can technology ensure the authentication and traceability of biomass to prevent greenwashing and support a genuine transition to sustainable green energy across various industries?

One needs to then start looking at it from a point of view of what is the problem that I want to solve for that section of the supply chain. The problem that we are solving for the origin of the supply chain is creating access, making sure participation happens, making sure investment happens, and a reliable supply gets created. This is a problem that we are solving. And if the problem is linked to the supply chain and at least my vision of the supply chain problem to any end user would be: am I really burning something or using something which is green? 

I need to trace back the supply all the way to where it came from. If it is coming from non-deforested land, only then can this customer claim their necessary credit. Over a period of time, as replacement of fossil fuels gets incentivised through carbon credits, this will become a structural need for certification.

–The writer was at the site on the invite of the company.