New Delhi [India], December 5: The Renewable sector has seen growth stories in Solar Energy, Wind Energy and Bio Ethanol. The next growth story in this sector is BIODIESEL.
The reason for the Biodiesel growth story is not far to seek.
BHARAT has made several commitments for Green House Gas reductions and has shown the World the way to ensure development and at the same time reduce Carbon emissions. Due to various pro-active actions taken, BHARAT is well on way to achieve Net Zero Emission status as per target due to the progress of Solar, Wind, Ethanol etc.
BIODIESEL is recognized world over as a very important tool to reduce emissions and fight global warming. The main reason is that Biodiesel is made from renewable sources and can be an import substitute in long run especially for developing Countries.
BHARAT had announced the National Policy on Biofuels in 2021 with an intent to contribute to National Energy Security, to mitigate Climate Change, to create new employment opportunities in sustainable manner
NPB thus has framed guidelines for promoting growth of few Renewables like, Ethanol, Biodiesel, Drop-in Fuels, Biogas. AS per the NPB, a blend of 20 % Ethanol and Biodiesel is required in petroleum-based Diesel.
For meeting the 20% blend, the demand for Biodiesel will be about 200 lakh Metric tonnes per year given the fact that BHARAT currently consumes about 1000 lakh Metric Tonnes of Petroleum Diesel.
Under this NPB, renewable fuels like Ethanol, Biogas, biomass etc have progressed greatly due to various incentives given by Government. It appears that focus is now shifted to BIODIESEL to further reduce Carbon emissions at accelerated pace and meet the goals of NPB.
BIODIESEL has to be blended into normal diesel by the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (PSU OMC) including Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum. Accordingly, the PSU OMC have jointly announced Tenders for purchase of Biodiesel to implement the Biodiesel Blending Program. The Tender is for purchasing Biodiesel at a fixed price.
As per conditions of this Tender, the approved Biodiesel manufacturer has to only offer the quantities that it wishes to supply based on its installed capacities. Since the price is already fixed, it is a great win-win situation for both, the Manufacturer and the OMC’s. Entire production capacities of the manufacturers can be sold to public sector OMC’s. This is unprecedented situation for any Sector.
To deter sale of unblended diesel in the Country, the Government has announced an additional levy of Rs 2 per litre of unblended Diesel with effect from 1st April 2025. This means that all OMC’s will have to pay additional Rs 2 per litre as a penalty if they sell Diesel in the Country without blending with Biodiesel.
This is another big, indirect, additional boost to the Biodiesel Industry.
The OMCs who require high quality Biodiesel have visited every Biodiesel manufacturer facility across the Country to ascertain about the technical capability of the manufacturer. The OMCs have enrolled only the manufacturers who can supply good quality of Biodiesel and only such Biodiesel manufacturers as are technically certified by the OMCs are allowed to participate in the Tender.
Currently, there are only 36 manufacturers in the whole Country that are approved by the PSU OMCs as being technically certified to supply Biodiesel to the OMCs under the Biodiesel Blending programme. And their total installed manufacturing capacity is only 12 lakh Metric tonnes per year against the requirement of 200 lakh Metric Tonnes.
There is thus a huge gap in supplies of 188 lakh Metric Tonnes which has to be filled in by 2030. It is seen that Biodiesel manufacturing capacities will have to increase manifold to meet this humungous demand and there will be a huge capacity expansion in Biodiesel sector. Thus, not only are the sales of existing approved Biodiesel manufacturers to OMCs assured, their expanded capacities are also taken care of.
By using 200 lakh Metric Tonnes of Biodiesel, there will be a reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions by about 400 lakh Metric Tonnes every year. This emissions reduction will assist the Country phenomenally in achieving its “Net zero” status.
Implementation of NPB guidelines for Biodiesel will result into further great direct and indirect benefits like rural employment, carbon sequester, land development etc.
With the thrust now placed by the Government on Biodiesel blending, this sector is bound to boom exponentially.
Important players in Biodiesel sector include Emami Limited, Kalesuwari Refineries, Monopoly Innovations, Universal, Biomax , BioD Energy to name a few with two listed entities in this sector which are Kotyark Industries Limited which trades at 990 per share and Rajputana Biofuels Limited which IPO got recently oversubscribed 730 times and trades at 260 per share.