The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), under its Jaivik Pahal (Bio Initiative) campaign, hosted the 4th International Conference on World Biofuel Day 2025 in New Delhi, themed “Indian Auto Industry’s Contribution Towards a Biofuel Economy.” The event brought together senior government officials, global experts, industry leaders, and sustainability advocates to explore strategies for accelerating India’s transition to biofuel-based mobility.
The inaugural session, “Charting the Roadmap for Biofuel Adoption in the Country,” set the tone for the conference with key leaders outlining policy directions, technological advancements, and industry commitments needed to accelerate India’s transition to a biofuel-driven economy.
Welcoming delegates to the conference, Prashant K. Banerjee, Executive Director, SIAM, reflected on the industry’s shared vision for a biofuel-led future. He noted, "The shift to ethanol economy offers a powerful opportunity to align climate actions with national development goals as we advance towards net zero. It directly contributes to multiple sustainable development goals, clean energy, climate action, good health, rural prosperity, while delivering immediate benefits of air quality across our cities and towns. We can make biofuel economy not just an aspiration, but India's global identity through innovation and collaboration with the support of partners and the government."
Speaking as the Guest of Honour, Sanjeev Chopra, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, highlighted India’s accelerated progress in ethanol blending. He said, "We are all aware that we touched 20% blending, which is something we thought we would do by the year 2030. We've done it in 2025, which is a great achievement on the part of all the stakeholders. The heartbeat of the entire transformation was the National Biofuel Policy of 2018, which allowed the diversion of not only C molasses, but also B-heavy, sugarcane juice, and grain, for the ethanol making programme. "
Representing Brazil as Guest of Honour, H.E. Kenneth Félix Haczynski da Nóbrega, Ambassador of the Federative Republic of Brazil, said, "India has made remarkable strides in ethanol blending. One of the lessons Brazil learned is that the success of our biofuel programme lies not just in technological capacity or feedstock availability, but in the robustness and predictability of the regulatory framework. Biofuels are essential for cleaner air, rural empowerment, energy security, and climate change mitigation. They form a vital part of the societal and economic shift towards sustainable practices. Multiple pathways can and should coexist to achieve carbon neutrality."
Speaking on behalf of the commercial vehicle industry, R. S. Sachdeva, Deputy Chief Executive Officer & Chief Transformation Officer, VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd., noted, "The biodiesel blending programme has been met with equal enthusiasm by the industry, which has made significant efforts to develop every aspect of the ecosystem. These are the early days on how we can blend biodiesel into diesel. We are also at 1% biogas mix with CNG. Feedstock reliability, driver training, and other options the journey cannot happen in silos and it needs advanced collaboration to make implementation smoother."
Representing Japanese automotive leadership, Ryuta Niimura, Chief Engineer, Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Japan, added, "Global biofuel alliance is an important initiative for promoting ethanol blending. There are multiple pathways to carbon neutrality, but developing energy infrastructure for few of these will take time. Bioethanol is a carbon-neutral fuel that benefits customers, the environment, and industry. It can be integrated into existing filling stations, helping to reduce CO2 emissions over the fuel’s lifecycle. Since ethanol can be produced domestically from available feedstock, increasing agricultural production will not only ensure supply but also improve farmer incomes and livelihoods."
Sharing the perspective of India’s gas distribution sector, Kamal Kishore Chatiwal, Managing Director, Indraprastha Gas Ltd., said, "India achieved E20 blending much ahead of schedule. We are very bullish on the story of biogas. Currently, in India, feedstock is not aggregated. Furthermore, municipal waste is not segregated in our cities. If we address this challenge, we can tap into huge biogas potential. We should achieve 10% of biogas infusion in CNG by 2030. We must extract every bit of energy from waste to help India become a developed economy by 2047."
Representing the sugar industry’s pivotal role in India’s biofuel transition, Niraj Shirgaokar, Managing Director, The Ugar Sugar Works Ltd., and Vice President, Indian Sugar & Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association, highlighted, "Ethanol offers an immediate and scalable route to decarbonising road transport while also enhancing farmer incomes and rural prosperity, fostering greater aspirations for mobility. We have invested 40,000 Crore for setting up ethanol distilleries between 2014 and 2024. We doubled in 5 years with Government support in molasses manufacturing. The pan-India base blend should gradually increase beyond E20 to E25, E27, and ultimately E30."
A context paper titled “Ethanol’s Role in India’s Decarbonisation Journey” was released during the conference, outlining pathways for scaling biofuel adoption in the automotive sector.
The first thematic session, “Ethanol Blending Program (EBP): Beyond E20,”chaired by Puneet Anand, AVP & Vertical Head, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, featured presentations and discussions on advancing ethanol adoption beyond current targets, highlighting policy, technological, and industry pathways to scale India’s biofuel transition. He noted India’s remarkable progress in ethanol blending and informed the audience that most new passenger vehicles are now fully E20 compliant, while stressing that the shift demands careful planning.
Dr. Mark Broomfield, Technical Director, Ricardo delivering a presentation on the “Importance of Biofuels in Improving Air Quality”. Ashim Sharma, Senior Partner, NRI Consulting & Solutions, Anita Gupta, Scientist-G, Department of Science & Technology; Dr. Pankaj Sharma, Deputy Director (Technical), Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell; Chinmay Dwivedi, Scientist ‘E’ / Director & Head (PCD), Bureau of Indian Standards; and Mayank Goel, General Manager – Technical, Shell India Markets Pvt. Ltd., shared policy and standards insights to enable higher ethanol blends in an engaging panel discussion.
The second thematic session, “Developing Advanced Biofuels in the Country,” chaired by Harjeet Singh, Senior Technical Advisor, Hero MotoCorp, explored innovations in 2G ethanol, compressed biogas, and low-carbon liquid fuels, with experts outlining strategies to accelerate India’s advanced biofuel ecosystem.
Rajnath Ram, Adviser (Energy), NITI Aayog, outlined the “Macro-level Vision and Policy Direction for Higher Ethanol Blending.”He added, “Biofuels are of strategic importance. India’s E20 achievement is not only a fuel policy but a strategic energy security measure. Climate action, energy security, and rural prosperity are three critical agendas driven by the biofuel policy and it needs to have phase-wise coordinated action from all stakeholders. Supply chain development is also vital for the growth of biofuels. No abnormal wear and tear have been noticed due to E20 in Indian vehicles upto 1 lakh kilometer.”
Brittany Hook, Business Development Director, HutanBio, spoke on “Low-Carbon Liquid Fuels: Accelerating India’s Clean Mobility Vision.” Anurag Saraogi, Executive Director (Biofuels), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., discussed “Advanced Biofuels: 2G Ethanol and CBG,” and Dr. Avinash Chandra Pandey, Director, Inter-University Accelerator Centre, presented on technological advancements in next-generation fuels. Industry perspectives came from Sameer Sinha, Business Head, Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd.; Sanjay Desai, Managing Director, Regreen-Excel EPC India Pvt. Ltd.; and Nilesh Deshpande, General Manager, Cummins India Ltd.
The third thematic session, “Sustainable Feedstock for Atmanirbhar Biofuel Production,” chaired by Mr. R. Ramaprabhu, Head (Fluids Technology PTD) Product Development, Mahindra & Mahindra, discussed strategies to secure and optimise feedstock supply for biofuel production through policy measures, technological innovation, and industry collaboration.
Aswani Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Sugar), Government of India, informed the audience by saying,” As we reflect India’s ethanol blending journey, availability of feedstock will be the key of its success which is the backbone of the sector. India is emerging as a major player in biofuels producing 1822 Cr litres of biofuels. We have sufficient capacity to achieve E20 blending milestone. The Government and industry are working on the more water efficient sweet sorghum and field trials are going on in Maharashtra. We need to deliver E20 blending target by strong multi-stakeholder collaboration.”
On this occasion, Prof. (Dr.) Seema Paroha, Director, National Sugar Institute, presented strategies for optimising sugarcane-based ethanol production; Gaurav Kedia, Chairman, Indian Biogas Association; Milind S. Patke, Chief Operating Officer, GPS Renewables; Shweta Saini, Senior Fellow, Arcus Policy Research; and Sanjay Pandita, Vice President, Reliance BP Mobility Ltd., discussed market and technology interventions to secure raw material availability.
The 4th International Conference on World Biofuel Day by SIAM reinforced India’s commitment to fostering a collaborative, innovation-led biofuel ecosystem, stressing that partnerships between industry, government, and research institutions will be crucial to meeting India’s clean mobility goals.