| | AUGUST 20218Let us first agree that clean ener-gy reforms are inevitable world-wide, and India is very much a part of this drive. Fossil fuels such as crude oil and coal are the most widely used energy sources and are not only polluting, but are responsi-ble for greenhouse gases, which have proven to result in climate change and health hazards. These side effects were not taken seriously till the glob-al researchers warned that if this is not curtailed, then the world may face severe repercussions. This consen-sus was formalised after the famous Paris accord which was signed by 196 countries in 2015. Most partici-pants pledged to reduce or eliminate the greenhouse gas generation with a definitive timeline. US President Joe Biden re-entered the US in the Paris accord effective February 19, 2021. Emerging economies such as India and Africa have greater pressure to limit greenhouse gas emission. India has been a strong crusader of the clean en-vironment drive and has launched Na-tional Clean Air Programme in 2019, a time-bound national level strategy to tackle increasing air pollution. His-torically in India, power and trans-portation have been the largest envi-ronment polluting segment followed by industrials and agriculture. Coal and crude oil derivatives have been the fuel of choice, and their emission norms were well accepted, or rather overlooked. It would be interesting to discuss these user segments to un-derstand the limitations and achieve-ments to contribute to clean energy.Transportation: A big relief came to Metro city life when India enacted a mandatory switch for mass transit system to use CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). We can call it a major success when we look back and imagine how would these cities be in absence of CNG. This has percolated to many tier-II cities too, but lack of gas transport infrastructure and injection system alteration has restricted its adoption. While gas became fuel of choice for Public transport, Government has also been pushing for liquid biofuels to be used along with Petrol and Diesel. With Brazil doing it successfully, India too has achieved up to 10 percent mixing and expected to do more. Ethanol success can be attributed to large sugar manufacturing industry which has profitably adapted to ethanol production as a bi-product. The emergence of Electric Mobility is a possible game changer, with every automaker planning for it. All these alternates have greatly contributed to lower pollution from transportation over the past few decades and are expected to reduce it further. The next promising area is Bio CNG, i.e producing gas from biomass using 2G technology. This is successful on a small scale, but its viability is not yet tested commercially.Power: India has always been a power deficit country and hence capacity addition was an ongoing activity. Thermal energy, mainly using coal was preferred for its economic viability and availability. Although power generation has seen a strong growth under NTPC and many private players, the pollution levels have worsened. This rising emission can be curtailed by co-firing with biofuels. This is an ongoing project by NTPC and has been followed by a few private players for their captive power plants. The most talked about WAYS TO ACCELERATE CLEAN ENERGY GROWTH IN INDIAWILL PREDICTIVE GENOMICS BRING A PATIENT-EMPOWERED FUTURE?By Ashvin Patil, Director, Biofuels JunctionVANTAGE POINTAshvin Patil, Director
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