Anticipating environmental cost of the second generation ethanol:

Abstract

For any developing nation, securing future energy concerns is the elementary step for its sustainable growth! Being the third largest energy-consuming nation, India whose consumption is set to be double by 2050 drove this research towards literature review which inferenced three major conclusions. Firstly, biofuels are very significant for the energy security in India and amongst them, ethanol appears to be the most viable solution. Secondly, ethanol generated from the edible matters i.e. 1G Ethanol is not sufficient to accomplish the EBP programme targets as it competes with food and water security in India. This essentially paves the way for 2G Ethanol i.e. ethanol derived from the lignocellulosic inedible biomass here, rice straw or stubble. Moreover, it has an added advantage of mitigating air pollution directly by channelizing the stubble to 2G industries and indirectly by creating greener fuels for vehicle. To achieve such a scenario, ethanol supply chain is mandatory for ground implementation but its gap analysis proves that 59% of its content is untouched in India. Economic aspects like fuel pricing, environmental cost, etc. and social aspects like storage warehouses, outlet stations, logistics, etc. are the least catered domains with just 4-9% coverage. Hence, complete thesis work tried to build around those perspectives. Anticipating environmental cost of 2G Ethanol is the main aim of thesis. It streams through four main objectives whose intent is to understand the present scenario of market, strategizing a 2G feedstock aggregation model for Haryana, evaluating the economic cost of 2G over 1G Ethanol and finally laying down the policy proposals for adapting remunerative price of 2G Ethanol from rice straw, having environmental cost as its crucial component. Analysis yields stubble catchment zones for strategically located 14 storage centres in Haryana. Government should provide a subsidy of at least 16% of 1G Ethanol to ensure successful adoption of 2G Ethanol by the market!