Gadkari urges industry to focus on alternative fuels with the help of futuristic technologies
Gadkari urges industry to focus on alternative fuels with the help of futuristic technologies
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that India is facing energy crunch, hence the country needs to diversify agriculture into energy and power sectors.
“We are already short of energy. We are spending ₹15 lakh crore every year for import of petrol, diesel and other petroleum products. So, it is time we move agriculture to energy and power sector. Diversity can provide,” Mr Gadkari said while addressing the felicitation program of the National Cogeneration Awards 2022 in Mumbai.
He urged the industry to focus on alternative fuels with the help of futuristic technologies.
“While 65-70% of our population depends on agriculture, our agricultural growth rate is only 12-13%. And the next step should be co-production to increase revenue from sugar. The industry should use less sugar and more by-products. This approach should be adopted. To harness the power of leadership for the technologies of the future and to convert knowledge into wealth. This will enable farmers to become not only food producers but energy producers as well.”
The minister further said that this year the sugar requirement of the country was 280 lakh tonnes, while the production was more than 360 lakh tonnes.
“However, we need to divert the production to ethanol as the requirement of ethanol is huge. Last year the capacity was 400 crore liters of ethanol and the government has taken a lot of initiatives to increase the ethanol production. Now planning for the industry There is a time of demand for ethanol by using technologies like power generators powered by bioethanol,” he said.
Shri Gadkari informed the industry that the government has decided to launch Flex Fuel Engine in the country. With Bajaj, Hero and TVS already making flex engines, several car makers have also promised to launch their models on flex engines.
The minister informed that auto-rickshaws can also be run on bio-ethanol, alternative fuel can also be used in the construction equipment industry.
He said, “Germany has proven the technology to run trains on bio-ethanol. A highly purified version of ethanol can also be used in the aviation industry, with the aeronautical sector researching how to do this. Is.”
Shri Gadkari said that Bio-CNG is much cheaper than CNG and can be made from rice straw and even from organic municipal waste, which makes it economically attractive.
The Minister said that there is scope for use of harvesting technology for harvesting sugarcane.
“The harvesting machines can use ethanol as a fuel, making a circular economy possible,” he said.