India's first biofuel flight to takeoff on Monday

NEW DELHI: On Monday India might see its first ever biofuel flight with SpiceJet planning to operate a turboprop, Q400, from Dehradun to Delhi using this as a sustainable alternative. As some advanced countries like US and Australia have already tested commercial flights on biofuel, India is among the first developing nations to make such an attempt.

Sources report the plan is that the biofuel-powered Bombardier Q400 will take off from Dehradun, fly over the city for 10 minutes and then return there. If the test goes well, then the plane will take off again and this time head to Delhi. Officials from several regulatory agencies, including DGCA, will be on board to see the result of this flight.

India is also trying to promote biofuels for reducing the dependence on fossil fuel. On August 10, World Biofuel Day 2018 was organized in Delhi where Prime Minister Modi released the “National Policy on Biofuels 2018”. This policy describes biofuel as being produced “from renewable resources and used in place of or in blend with, diesel, petrol or other fossil fuels for transport, stationary, portable and other applications. Renewable resources are the biodegradable fraction of products, wastes and residues from agriculture, forestry, tree based oil other non-edible oils and related industries as well as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal wastes.” 

A leading oil PSUs website quotes petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan saying “several steps have been taken to improve the supply of ethanol for the blending programme that has resulted in supplies jumping from 38 crore litres in 2013-14 to about 141 crore litres in the ongoing season.” The National Policy on Biofuels 2018 envisages a target of 20 percent mixing of ethanol in petrol by 2030.