Dr Ajit Sapre, Group President R&T, Reliance Industries Ltd

21 Pages·2015·3.05 MB·English

by  Sajith Raghavan

Reliance Bio-Fuels Strategy

Dr. Ajit Sapre
Reliance Technology Group

15th February, 2015
2
Biofuel drivers for RIL
 Energy security (India imports 75% crude oil)
 Reduce forex outgo
 Rural upliftment
 Maximum value generation from Indian land mass
 No food versus fuel competition
 Climate change mitigation
Bio-fuels key to sustainably meet hydrocarbon demand & improve farmers’ livelihood
3
Sustainable development challenge
More, Secure and Responsible technology needed for India
OECD (17% world population)
Industrialization Traditional
and personal
mobility take off Unsustainable
Economic growth
China
requires little
additional energy
d Sustainable
n
a
Leapfrogging
m
e
Efficient
d
Services dominate
y
g growth and basic Renewable
re Urbanization households energy Technology
n
E needs are met
Development &
Deployment
Non-OECD (83% world population)
(Solar, Wind,
India
Biomass)
3,000 10,000 15,000 25,000
GDP/Capita in constant PPP terms
Demand for materials & energy is growing rapidly as developing countries like India enter
their most energy-intensive phase of economic development
4
Future of liquid hydrocarbons?
Light
Food Heat
House
Clothes
Sustainability & energy security two sides of the same coin
5
RIL: A significant commitment to renewables
R&D, major focus on advanced biotechnology
 Two hundred scientists and engineers working in India, trained in the best
institutions globally
 International collaborations with top notch institutions, leveraging talent of
additional two hundred and fifty scientists and engineers
 No food vs. fuel competition
 Surplus agri-residue (>100 MM MTpa biomass resulting in >25 MM MTpa biofuel)
 Jatropha (develop high yield varieties in low rainfall marginal land areas)
 Algae (use sea-water and desert land at coastline)
 Adopt PM’s triple S mantra: Skill, Scale and Speed for these challenging problems
Algae oil
Agri-residue to kerosene
Jatropha to bio-diesel Algae to bio-crude
RIL committed to largest cutting-edge R&D program by any private enterprise to help India
leap-frog
6
Thermochemical route is economically attractive
Syngas or Catalytic Pyrolysis
• In the Indian context thermochemical routes may be more attractive than cellulosic
fermentation due to types of non feed/ fodder bio-mass availability
• Business model innovation: distributed production and consumption at village level
Thermochemical route can improve overall carbon utilization efficiency to end products
7
Agri-residue conversion to modern energy
Feed Stock Technology De-Construction Upgrading Product
Biomass to Power
1 KG = 1.7 KW
= 1465 KCAL
Combined Cycle Biomass Power Power
generation
Biomass to Ethanol
1 KG = 252 GRAM
= 1780 KCAL
Agri-residues
Enzymatic Hydrolysis Fermentation Ethanol
Non-fodder/ food-
stalks, trash and bagasse
Biomass to HC Fuel
1 KG = 280 GRAM
= 2960 KCAL
Catalytic Pyrolysis Hydrotreatment Gasoline/Diesel/
Kerosene
Converting biomass to fungible hydrocarbons like kerosene is more efficient technology
8
Agri-residue conversion to hydrocarbons
more valuable than burning
Burning is a cheap and quick way to clear field but leads to loss of nutrients and pollution
Images from The Guardian
NASA image showing fire hot-spots (red dots)
Pollution in Delhi
Source: NASA, Hindustan Times Nov 7, 2013
Excess agri-residues can be converted to kerosene at village level
9
Bio-feedstock aggregation/ supply opportunity
• Farm & Farmer
Coordination
Farm Harvesting
Seasonal • Manual Labor
• Aggregation
Short window
Distributed
Bulky  Biomass surplus >100 million
tons per annum
 Bio-fuels potential >25 million
• Transport
• Weeding tons per annum
Collection
• Accounting
Moisture, Grits,  Collection and processing of
Foreign Matter, • Sizing
biomass is estimated to create
Timing
additional income stream of at
least Rs. 20,000 crore per year
• Drying for the rural economy
• Stocking
Preparation
• Planning
Loss, Capacity
• Transporting
Utilisation,
Synchronize
Innovative business models for supply chain, logistics and cost competitiveness
10
Jatropha crop improvement
RIL Jatropha Germplasm collection
Classical Hybrids
Individual
collection
Random lines
Hybrids Development hybrids
Goals
Mutagen-
esis
•Virus tolerance
•Year round flowering
•Good Branching pattern
•Variability
•Suitability to different Agro
climatic Zones Top Selected elites
151 lines collected 195 lines collected
from 17 states from 11 countries Primary objective is to Develop high yielding pest
and disease tolerant hybrid for rain fed conditions
P1 Jatropha curcas P2 Jatropha integerrima
Tissue Culture Hybrids
Green flower Pink flower
 Phase - I
X  Developing robust and reproducible Tissue Culture protocols for the
rapid multiplication of parental lines
 Developing Single Sequence Repeat and other markers to facilitate the
Screening efficiencies
 Phase - II
 Metabolic engineering for lipid expression and photosynthetic efficiency
F1 cream flower  Heat and salt tolerance constructs
Both Rain-fed &
Support Irrigation

Hybridization using world-wide Jatropha germplasm and tissue culture to improve yields
and robustness