Regional Renewable Energy India: Bioethanol From Rice Straw

Abstract

India is highly dependent on fossil fuels mainly coal, oil, and gasoline so as to fulfill its energy demands. But, excessive exploitation of fossil fuels, natural resource scarcity, day-by-day enhancement in oil prices, and emission of green house gases, all these conditions leads to the search for a renewable, sustainable source of energy. Bioethanol is a reliable, economical, and readily available resource of renewable energy, which can be used as a fuel for power generation. Rice is the main staple food of India, and rice crops generate a huge amount of rice straw as crop residue in the fields. Unsustainable use of rice straw and open burning of crop in the field produce threat to the environment by producing large amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and also make farmer’s loose a very viable by-product. Rice straw can be used in bioethanol production and bring additional income and sustainable utilization. India is showing great interests toward the use of ethanol for supplementing its energy requirements. Conversion of rice straw into bioethanol not only overcome the nation’s dependency on foreign countries and saves lot of money spent on importing crude oil but also solves global warming issues.