New Delhi: Much of the discussion on combating climate change is focusing on captivating carbon dioxide and methane which are the two major culprits causing global warming.

Cultivation of bio-fuels in wasteland, spare forest land and non-agricultural areas such as the two sides of several thousand kilometers of railway track in India, offers a viable solution to mitigate carbon dioxide apart from the fact that the production of bio-diesel, the natural bio-fuel for tomorrow, can be used in power plants and transport sector.

The two-day International Conference on New Frontiers in Biofuels', organized by Delhi Technological University (DTU) in association with Delhi Knowledge Development Foundation, Govt. of Delhi was inaugurated today by Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister, Govt. of NCT of Delhi at the India Habitat Centre.

"We must commit to create a green future for ourselves and for coming generations by green energy and sustainable environment technologies. The government of Delhi sees high-scope for cultivation of bio-fuel in the areas around the major drains and the vast area of the ridge. Together with DTU, the government of Delhi is also initiating a plan for converting waste cooking oil, procured from hotels and restaurants, into bio-diesel so as to have enough of its production capacity in Delhi," said Dikshit, while applauding the innovations carried out by DTU students and faculty in recent past.

Rakesh Mehta, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Delhi, who was also present during the inaugural session spoke about the importance of bio-fuel and green energy technology initiatives taken up as a part of Delhi government climate change agenda.

"We should pursue all possible routes to prepare our society to conserve energy and also promote green energy development in our country," said Mehta.

Others present on the occasion included Anand Prakash, Principal Secretary, Training & Technical Education (TTE), Govt. of Delhi, Prof. P.B. Sharma, Vice Chancellor, DTU, Mr. V. K. Jain, Additional Secretary, TTE, Govt. of Delhi, and Prof. Naveen Kumar, Organizing Secretary, DTU among others.

The International conference is being attended by leading experts from bio-fuel industry, academia and government agencies from many countries of the world including US, UK, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria, Iran and Brazil, besides experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc) and other leading Research & Development organizations.

"DTU is firmly committed to research and innovations in the areas of green energy technology. Bio-fuel is major thrust area of research and development at DTU," said Prof. Sharma.

Mitigating the fears of bio-fuel cultivation on impinging the food security, he informed, "The cultivation of bio-fuel in India will not be in the agricultural land as the Planning Commission Report of 2003 on bio-diesel has clearly pointed out. Bio-fuels are both environmentally friendly and are a natural renewable source of energy. As such India has a gold mine of opportunity in this area of vital national interest."

In the plenary session that followed, presentations on major advances in second, third and fourth generation bio-fuels were made by eminent experts like Prof. Sudip Rakshit, Vice-President (research), Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Mr. Fred Tennant, Vice-President, PetroAlgae, US, Mr. Philip Lichtenberger, CEO, Four Rivers Bio-energy Inc. USA, Prof. H.S. Mukunda, IISc Bangalore and Dr. Alok Adholeya, Director, Biotech & Biore source, TERI, New Delhi, to mention some.

The third generation bio-fuels shall arise out of petro-algae which has the capacity to produce 90-110 Metric tons/ per hectare/ per year and shall generate high food grade quality protein alongside bio-fuels as against 7.5-10 Metric tons/ per hectare of Jatrpoha born bio-fuels.

"Micro organism based bio-fuel would make it a highly economically viable option," informed Mr. Tennant.

Already in advanced countries like US$1 per gallon of tax rebate for production of bio-diesel as a substitute to diesel is being provided. US has set out for itself a target for producing 7.5 billion barrels by 2012, which will be further upgraded to 36 billion barrels by 2022.

What prevents India from taking similar stride, is a question that remains to be answered.

In the technical sessions on Biofuels production and quality standards, Prof. I.L. Moon, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, Dr. Y.P. Rao, Sr. Vice-President (Technical), Gulf Oil Corporation Ltd, Mumbai and Prof. Ghasem Najafpour, Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran and Ms. Pinki Anand, Delhi University brought out that as we proceed towards bio-fuel production and utilization, energy efficiency of bio-fuels production and fuel quality standards have to be taken care of.

This requires an interdisciplinary consortium oriented research methodology. The last technical session of the day was on Biofuel: Challenges, opportunities and legislation and it was participated by Dr. Tilman Altenburg, Head, German Development Institute, Mr. Naren Raju, CEO, Bioenergy Plantation, Singapore, Mr. Rafael Valdetaro Bianchini, CSO, Centre West Tech. Institute, Brazil and Mr. Churchill Dass Prince M, National Law School of India University, Bangalore.

The technical sessions were chaired by Padamshree Prof. K.L.Chopra, Former Director, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. D.V.Singh, Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Roorkee and Dr. Rajender Prasad, University of South Pacific, Suva, Fiji.

An exhibition on latest technological developments in the area of bio-fuels has also been put on at the conference venue at Habitat Centre in the capital.

Tomorrow, country papers will be presented to capture the global scenario on bio-fuels and the focus of discussion would be on next-generation bio-fuels and their applications to energy and transport sector.

A round table on bio-fuels as a solution to mitigate climate change will also be conducted tomorrow, which will be chaired by Rakesh Mehta, Chief Secretary, Delhi and participated by Dr. W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, DRDO, Somenath Ghosh, CMD, NRDC and the leaders of bio-fuel industry from other countries.