Need to shift away from fossil fuels: petroleum secretary
Business Line, Delhi   10-Dec-2020

India will need to gradually shift away from fossil fuels while looking for sustainable cleaner alternatives according to Petroleum Secretary Tarun Kapoor.

Speaking at an event jointly organised by IndianOil and LanzaTech on Circular Economy Vision – CO2 Valorisation, Kapoor said, “We will need to shift away from fossil fuels in a phased manner and adopt more sustainable alternatives to meet our energy requirements.

The session was organised by the DBT-IOC Centre for Advanced Bio-Energy Research (an entity co-funded by India’s Department of Biotechnology and IndianOil Corporation Limited) and carbon recycling company, LanzaTech.

The event highlighted the carbon recycling technology that has been developed by the two over the last six years in India.

An IndianOil statement said that this technology uses two basic ingredients, CO2 and H2, to produce sustainable fuels, chemicals and food.

These companies have been working on this platform since 2014 when they first demonstrated the production of omega-3 fatty acids and fatty acids of Biodiesel from CO2 feedstock. Together, they have integrated two cutting edge technologies to enable direct conversion of CO2 to high-value products.

<strong>Patented processes</strong>
Both these processes are widely patented by the respective collaborators and they are now protected by granted Intellectual Property laws in prominent geographies, the IndianOil statement added.

Kapoor said that this technology has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of biofuels and make them directly competitive with conventional fossil fuels in the country.