NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — The Narendra Modi led Indian government has prepared a roadmap to replace conventional fuel with bio-fuel in ships used by its defense forces. The roadmap also lays out a plan to use methanol for propelling barges. By doing so, India will not only be able to cut the import of crude oil by at least ten percent in the next five years, the country will also be able to save approximately $15 billion a year.
"It will be good to have a pilot study to examine whether we can use CNG or LNG as fuel for vessels which could be cheaper and cleaner as compared to the other fuels being used for the vessels," Dharmendra Pradhan, India's Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas said.
An understanding is expected to be signed between government run Goa Shipyard limited, the Indian Coast Guard and energy producer Gas India Limited (GAIL) for conducting the study. GAIL will be manufacturing new kind of fuels that would help propel the ship without compromising the thrust.
"The new fuels could be used for high speed and low-speed boats as surveillance boats require huge amount of high speed diesel," Pradhan added.
India's crude oil import bill is expected to increase 23% from $70 billion in 2016-17 to $86 billion in 2017-18. Transportation and domestic consumption accounts for 80 percent import of crude. The government also expects to soon come out with a policy to increase production of bio fuels. State owned companies have planned an investment of approximately $2 billion on research and development for second generation bio-fuel refineries across the country.
