IOC advocates integrating biodiesel processing within existing refineries

Indian Oil, India’s largest state-owned oil and gas corporation, is urging the government to allow biodiesel to be processed alongside traditional crude oil at its refineries, a shift it argues could facilitate the country’s ambitions for a 5% biodiesel blend by 2030.

The development should be seen in the context of headwinds in supply of oil and other raw materials, manufacturing, and efficiency issues, which have slowed down its adoption despite push from the central government since past over a decade. In India, biodiesel is produced primarily from non-edible vegetable oil, acid oils, animal tallow, and palm stearin oil.

Domestically available used cooking oil (UCO) has been identified as a potential raw material for biodiesel production in the National Policy on Biofuels, 2018. The waste cooking oil can be collected in bulk from consumers such as restaurants, hotels, etc., for conversion into biodiesel, as per a policy brief preapred by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a think tank.

India has already established a 5% biodiesel target by 2030, which would require almost 4.5 billion litres of biodiesel per year, IEA estimates. Mobilising production will require a similar mix of policies as provided for ethanol, including production support, guaranteed pricing, and feedstock support, especially for mobilising residue oils like used cooking oil and vegetable oils grown on marginal land.

The wider adoption of biodiesel can reduce dependence on petroleum imports, help in reducing GHG emissions, boost the domestic economy, and maintain the payload capacity and range of petroleum-derived diesel, among others.