Bio-refinery

Bio-refinery

Subject: Environment

Context: The Minister of Petroleum and natural gases at an event Global Bio India 2021, organised by Department of Biotechnology said push for setting up twelve bio refineries or 2G-ethanol commercial plants from agriculture waste across eleven states is going on.

Concept:

• It will help India in ethanol blending programme for achieving 20 per cent ethanol-blending in petrol by 2025.

About Bio-refinery

• Bio-refinery integrates biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power, and value-added chemicals from biomass.
• Thus, it seeks to maximize the value derived from the biomass feedstock.
• It mimics existing petroleum refineries while meeting energy needs and reducing the massive greenhouse gas emissions from oil production.
• National Policy on Biofuels emphasizes on increasing production using second generation bio-refineries and developing new feedstock for biofuels. It allowed the production of ethanol from damaged food grains like wheat and broken rice, which are unfit for human consumption.