Among the COP22 nations that had joined the Biofuture Platform in November 2016 to pursue advances in clean energy, India had remained a laggard.
Plans to catch up quickly with new research in producing feedstock for second-generation ethanol (made from higher-yield feed crop) may however put India in a good stead to receive global scientific cooperation on biofuels.
"India's biofuel mission is stuck on ethanol policy but our innovation has not just stopped there," said V.K. Saraswat, eminent scientist and member (science), at the government think tank, NITI Aayog.
He was addressing the first international conference on biofuels in Delhi on Monday. The event is being organised by the 22-country and European Commission-led platform, Mission Innovation, arising from the Paris Agreement by International Energy Agreement (IEA) nations.
"We are at the final stages of solving the feedstock challenge by using micro algae and cyanobacteria to produce second-generation ethanol (E2G)," Saraswat said, addressing the gathering of domestic and international biofuel researchers.
Mission Innovation aims to address seven challenges to accelerate the adoption rate of biofuels through research and development efforts on a global basis. The mission claims to push for carbon reduction and is not a business platform unlike the United Nations.
Saraswat said that in the near future, India would be seeking private investments as well as leading with government efforts to set up commercial biofuel refineries in the country.
"A major aim of this effort to offer and receive scientific cooperation aims to avoid duplication of efforts. And India will lead this global initiative to develop newer feedstock for second-generation biofuels," said Saraswat.
However, India has so far failed to achieve its target of up to 20 per cent ethanol blending with fossil fuels by 2017. Only 5 per cent ethanol blending in fuels is allowed so far and ethanol prices are fixed periodically by the government, using an economic formula considering cane production, sugar demand, ethanol demand and capacity.
Saraswat indicated that the conference and other initiatives through 2018 will catalyse domestic research in biofuels and bring them to commercial scale.
India hopes to attain a moderate ranking in the upcoming first global survey on 'state of the advance of low carbon bio-economy' expected later this year.
Brazil, China and Canada are some of the countries that have scaled up in terms of not only research efforts but have also developed policies and budgets for sustainable growth of the biofuel sector.
With increased output, biofuel prices, which are currently a 100th of fossil fuel prices, are expected to be cheaper going ahead.
Use of biofuels in cars and long-distance road transportation and as shipping fuel, industrial oil and lately as aviation fuel is being researched at a fast pace by China, Brazil, US and by European nations like UK, France and Denmark.
In India, vehicle manufacturers like Volvo and Scania have already rolled out commercial heavy vehicles that run on ethanol, just as they would on fossil fuels.