National Policy on Biofuels: Which Raw Materials Are Approved

The National Policy on Biofuels decides which crops and wastes may become fuel. The list includes damaged, waste and surplus material. Surplus grain needs NBCC approval.

1.1 What is the National Policy on Biofuels?

The policy has three dates worth knowing.

• The Union Cabinet approved it on 16 May 2018.
• The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas notified it on 4 June 2018.
• It replaced the 2009 national biofuel policy.

The Cabinet amended it on 18 May 2022. The amendment allowed more feedstocks and advanced the ethanol blending target.

1.2 Which raw materials did the 2018 policy name for ethanol?

The 2018 policy expanded the raw materials for ethanol. It named these groups.

• Sugarcane juice.
• Sugar-containing materials such as sugar beet and sweet sorghum.
• Starch-containing materials such as corn and cassava.
• Damaged food grains such as wheat and broken rice, and rotten potatoes, unfit for human consumption.

1.3 Which items in the exam question are approved?

UPSC’s 2020 prelims asked about this list. Four of the items it gave are on the policy list.

• Cassava is approved. It is a starch-containing material.
• Damaged wheat grains are approved. They are damaged food grains.
• Rotten potatoes are approved. The policy names them directly.
• Sugar beet is approved. It is a sugar-containing material.

The other two, groundnut seeds and horse gram, are not named in the policy. The answer is therefore items 1, 2, 5 and 6 only.

1.4 Why are groundnut seeds and horse gram not on the list?

The policy gives no reason for these two crops. They are simply not on its list. The list names sugar, starch, damaged grain and waste.

Exam answers explain the gap through food security. Both crops are food, and both give protein. Treat this as the exam reading. The policy text does not say it in these words.

Many items on the list are damaged, waste or surplus. The policy names damaged grains and rotten potatoes as unfit for human consumption. It allows surplus grain only with NBCC approval.

2.1 Why are damaged and rotten items on the list?

The policy describes damaged food grains and rotten potatoes as unfit for human consumption. Using them for fuel takes no food that people could eat.

2.2 When can surplus food grains be used?

The policy covers one more case. Farmers can lose out in a bumper year, because prices fall when there is too much grain. The policy therefore allows surplus food grains for ethanol.

• A grain counts as surplus only with the approval of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC).
• The ethanol is meant for blending with petrol.
• The aim is to protect what farmers earn in a surplus phase.

2.3 What does the policy list look like after the 2022 amendment?

A Lok Sabha reply in August 2024 listed the feedstocks “as amended in 2022”. The list is longer than in 2018. Its main groups are below.

• Sugar side: C and B heavy molasses, sugarcane juice, sugar and sugar syrup.
• Biomass: grasses and farm residues such as rice straw, cotton stalk, corn cobs, saw dust and bagasse.
• Sugar and starch crops: sugar beet, sweet sorghum, corn, cassava and rotten potatoes.
• Grains: damaged grains such as broken rice, grains unfit for human consumption, and grains in a surplus phase as declared by the NBCC.
• Others: agro-food and pulp industry waste, industrial waste and off-gases, algae and seaweed.

Groundnut seeds and horse gram are still not named.

The policy matters because it set a target that a fuel programme could chase. That target is blending ethanol into petrol.

3.1 What are basic and advanced biofuels?

The policy sorts biofuels into two groups.

• Basic biofuels: first-generation (1G) bioethanol and biodiesel.
• Advanced biofuels: second-generation (2G) ethanol, municipal solid waste to drop-in fuels, third-generation (3G) biofuels and bio-CNG.

The split lets the government give each group its own incentives.

3.2 How did the 20% target change?

The target was 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2030. The 2022 amendment advanced it to Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2025-26. An ESY runs from November to October.

3.3 How fast did blending rise?

A Lok Sabha reply of 23 July 2026 gives the average blending for each year.

• ESY 2013-14: about 1.53%.
• ESY 2020-21: about 8.1%.
• ESY 2021-22: about 10%.
• ESY 2022-23: about 12%.
• ESY 2023-24: about 14.6%.
• ESY 2024-25: about 19.2%.
• ESY 2025-26 (November to June): 20%.

The reply says India reached 20% blending five years ahead of the original target. An earlier step also came early. Oil marketing companies hit 10% in June 2022, five months ahead of target.

3.4 What has the programme delivered?

The same Lok Sabha reply gives the totals so far.

• Over ₹1.97 lakh crore of foreign exchange saved.
• Nearly 316 lakh tonnes of crude oil replaced.
• About 952 lakh tonnes of CO2 emissions cut.
• Over ₹1.66 lakh crore paid to farmers.

These totals grow every year. Always check the date of a figure before using it.

The list is not fixed. The government uses more crops and wastes so that no single crop carries the whole programme.

4.1 Why use many feedstocks?

The Petroleum Ministry told Parliament that a diversified basket cuts dependence on any single crop. It also makes the supply more resilient. The basket includes sugarcane-based feedstocks, maize, damaged foodgrains, broken rice, foodgrains unfit for human consumption, and surplus foodgrains approved by the NBCC.

4.2 How big has maize become?

Maize is now the biggest feedstock.

• Maize rose from 0% in ESY 21-22 to around 37% in ESY 25-26, says the Lok Sabha reply.
• The Food Department calls maize the biggest feedstock for ethanol.
• The government is also studying sweet sorghum as another feedstock.

4.3 What other steps widened the supply?

In August 2025 the government listed several steps to secure feedstock for the 20% target.

• Maize clusters were developed around ethanol plants.
• A plan allowed 52 LMT of surplus FCI rice for each of two supply years.
• Diversion of 40 LMT of sugar for ethanol was allowed for ESY 2024-25.

4.4 What does a second-generation plant look like?

Indian Oil’s plant at Panipat is a 2G example. The Prime Minister dedicated it on 10 August 2022. It is designed to use about 2 lakh tonnes of rice straw (parali) a year. It should make around 3 crore litres of ethanol a year.

Ethanol is one leg of the policy. Biodiesel and biogas are the other two. Both follow the same idea: use waste and non-food material first.

5.1 What does the policy say about biodiesel?

The policy sets a target of 5% biodiesel blending in diesel by 2030. It encourages supply chains for biodiesel from three kinds of raw material.

• Non-edible oilseeds.
• Used cooking oil.
• Short gestation crops.

5.2 How can used cooking oil become fuel?

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) runs a strategy to divert used cooking oil from the food chain. Its mark is RUCO, short for Repurpose Used Cooking Oil.

PIB’s 2019 release gave one estimate. About 1.2 MMTPA of used oil could be collected from hotels, restaurants and canteens. That would give approximately 110 crore litres of biodiesel a year. The same release says no collection chain existed at the time.

5.3 What is SATAT, and what has it built?

SATAT is the scheme for compressed bio-gas (CBG). The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas launched it on 1 October 2018. Oil marketing companies invited entrepreneurs to set up CBG plants.

• The plan was 5,000 CBG plants making 15 million tonnes a year by 2023-24.
• On 31 July 2026, 217 CBG plants were working, says the Government.
• CBG comes from farm residue, cattle dung, press mud and municipal waste.

The Class 10 geography book also describes biogas. Biogas for rural homes can come from shrubs, farm waste and animal and human waste.

Government rules let surplus rice from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) go to ethanol. They also say when it may not.

6.1 What counts as surplus FCI rice?

The FCI first keeps its buffer stock. It then meets the needs of the Targeted Public Distribution System and other welfare schemes. Only the excess is sold from the Central Pool, under the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic). That excess is the rice offered as ethanol feedstock.

6.2 How much rice has gone to ethanol?

The Food Department gave these figures for two supply years.

• It allocated 52 LMT of FCI rice for ESY 2024-25 and another 52 LMT for ESY 2025-26.
• Distilleries lifted 31.83 LMT in ESY 2024-25.
• They lifted 4.58 LMT in ESY 2025-26, up to 11 December 2025.

The Petroleum Ministry said the allocation for ESY 2025-26 ran up to 30 June 2026.

6.3 What is the rule behind these numbers?

The department says it gives food security the highest priority. FCI rice is used for ethanol only when it is available in excess after buffer and welfare needs are met. This is the surplus-only rule in practice.

India took the biofuel idea to the world stage in 2023.

7.1 When and where was the alliance launched?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA) on 9 September 2023. The place was the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi. The leaders of Singapore, Bangladesh, Italy, the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Mauritius and the UAE joined him.

7.2 What does the alliance do?

PIB says the GBA will support biofuels worldwide in three main ways, and it also helps with standards and codes.

• Capacity-building across the value chain.
• Technical support for national programmes.
• Sharing of policy lessons.

It also helps with internationally recognised standards, codes and sustainability principles.

7.3 How has the alliance grown?

Counts differ with the date, so quote the date with the number.

• 9 September 2023: 19 countries and 12 international organisations had agreed to join.
• July 2024: 24 member countries and 12 organisations.
• January 2025: 28 member countries and 12 organisations.

The alliance also signed a Head Quarters Agreement with India in October 2024. It sets up the GBA Secretariat in India.

Questions list several raw materials and ask which ones count. They also test dates, ministries and numbers.

8.1 What are the common traps?

• Not every crop on the list is approved. UPSC CSP 2020, Q84 gave a list of items. Only four of them are named in the policy.
• Two dates for the 20% target. The original year was 2030. The amended year is ESY 2025-26.
• Ethanol and biodiesel have different targets. Ethanol is 20% in petrol. Biodiesel is 5% in diesel by 2030.
• Ministries. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas notified the policy and launched SATAT.
• Cassava is a woody shrub. The FAO data sheet describes an erect shrub with woody stems, and NParks calls it a semi-woody perennial shrub.