Untapped Biomass Waste Can Aid Fossil Fuel Replacement: Biofuels Junction MD

Biofuels Junction Pvt., India's only organised biomass player, sees the unutilised biomass going to waste every year as a legitimate replacement to fossil fuels for industries looking for sustainable energy solutions.

India generates around 700 million metric tonnes of agricultural residue annually, of which, 200 million metric tonnes remains unutilised, said Ashvin Patil, managing director, Biofuels Junction. Every year, biomass residue from rice husk, soya, corn cobs, parali, etc. goes to waste or is burnt by farmers.

"There is potential to convert the surplus biomass into fuels—briquettes and pellets—that can be used by hard-to-abate industries to replace or blend with coal," Patil said.

The biofuel market in India is seen at $12-15 billion, providing lucrative opportunity for players like Biofuels Junction, the managing director said.

The company acts as an aggregator connecting manufacturers with buyers through an Android application. It sees strong demand for biofuel from the chemicals and pharmaceutical industries for heat generation, replacement of coal with biomass in power plants after government mandated 5% coal replacement with biomass, and the compressed biogas segments.

Biofuels Junction produces around 20,000 metric tonne of biofuel a month, or close to 2.5 lakh tonne a year that is supplied to over 100 clients. Reliance Industries Ltd., NTPC Ltd., and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. are some of the clients. The biofuel producer says replacing coal and furnace oil with biomass will reduce emissions and would also be carbon neutral since they are crop based.

“A crop-based fuel (briquette and pellets) releases 1 tonne less carbon on burning compared with coal, but the advantage is it is carbon neutral as it releases the carbon absorbed while releasing oxygen during its lifetime,” Patil said.

Biomass does not generate greenhouse gases such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, and the particulate matter is way below the industry standards of 150 ppm.

The company expects a revenue of Rs 150 crore in fiscal 2025 that it expects to jump to Rs 1,000 crore in next four to five years. Patil said, the major investments are expected to increase employee strength and in balers—machines that are used to densify the biomass before they are loaded and transferred to the manufacturing plants.