As demand for renewable energy grows in India, liquid and gaseous biofuels are expected to be one of the fastest-growing markets, driven by significant feedstock potential and supportive policies. These fuels can provide low-emission energy in heat, electricity and transport. They can also be produced domestically, reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels, improving energy security, and creating economic development and employment opportunities. This report “India Bioenergy Market Report: Outlook for liquid and gaseous biofuels to 2030” published by IEA examines the current supply and demand of liquid and gaseous biofuels in India and their forecasted growth to 2030. It provides a detailed assessment of existing policy and regulatory frameworks, feedstocks, production capacity, and identifies key considerations that may influence future development.
Bioenergy is particularly important for India’s rapidly growing energy market. It can strengthen energy security, reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels, create economic development and employment opportunities – especially in rural communities – and contribute to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. India’s ethanol industry has emerged as one of the country’s most successful policy-driven energy stories. Backed by a suite of supply, demand, innovation and financing policies, India’s ethanol consumption has grown fourfold from less than 2 BLPY at the start of India’s National Policy of Biofuels in 2018 to more than 11 BLPY by 2025.
Biogas has a long history in India, with CBG sector undergoing a promising growth spurt. Interest is also growing in sustainable aviation fuels and innovative fuel pathways. As demand for low-emissions fuels in aviation is expected to grow, so too is demand for biojet. However, rapid deployment of new projects, as well as scaling up new fuel technology pathways, will be required to meet forthcoming demand driven by India’s sustainable aviation fuel mandate.
There are challenges ahead, but they can be addressed with right policy support. In the accelerated case, ethanol is expected to continue expanding backed by a suite of strong policies while biodiesel accelerates growth if feedstock challenges are addressed and production capacity are supported. Biojet is expected to scale-up but will continue to require support across the entire value chain. CBG’s fast development pace needs to be accompanied by a comparable scale-up of the feedstock supply chain and the development of new markets for fermented organic manure produced in CBG plants.
Access the report here