Global Biofuels Alliance

About Global Biofuels Alliance:

• It is an India-led Initiative to develop an alliance of Governments, International organizations and Industry to facilitate adoption of biofuels.
• A total of 19 countries and 12 international organizations have so far agreed to join the alliance, including both G20 members and non-member countries.
• India, Brazil and the US are the founding members of the alliance.
• This Alliance will be aimed at facilitating cooperation and intensifying the use of sustainable biofuels, including in the transportation sector.
• Significance of the alliance
  • It will place emphasis on strengthening markets, facilitating global biofuels trade, development of concrete policy lesson-sharing and provision of technical support for national biofuels programs worldwide.
  • It will support worldwide development and deployment of sustainable biofuels by offering capacity-building exercises across the value chain, technical support for national programs and promoting policy lessons-sharing.
  • It will facilitate mobilizing a virtual marketplace to assist industries, countries, ecosystem players and key stakeholders in mapping demand and supply, as well as connecting technology providers to end users.
  • It will also facilitate development, adoption and implementation of internationally recognized standards, codes, sustainability principles and regulations to incentivize biofuels adoption and trade.

What is Biofuel? 

• It is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. 
• Different Generations of Biofuel
  • First generation: It is produced from consumable food items containing starch (rice and wheat) and sugar (beets and sugarcane) for bioalcohols, or vegetable oils for biodiesel. 
  • Second generation: It is mainly obtained from non-food feedstocks such as forest/industry/agricultural wastes and waste or used vegetable oils. 
  • Third generation: It is known as ‘algae fuel’, are derived from algae in the form of both, biodiesel and bioalcohols. 
  • Fourth generation: Like the third generation, 4G biofuels are made using non-arable land. However, unlike the third, they do not need the destruction of biomass.

Q1) What is Algae?

Algae are a diverse group of photosynthetic, plant-like organisms that can be found in various aquatic and terrestrial environments. They are not true plants but belong to a group of primarily aquatic organisms known as protists. Algae can vary significantly in size, ranging from microscopic unicellular forms to large, multicellular seaweeds.

Source: PM Modi launches Global Biofuels Alliance.