%K Sweet sorghum, Ethanol production, Economic assessment
%C Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India
%A G Basavaraj
%A P P Rao
%A K Basu
%A Ch Ravinder Reddy
%A B V S Reddy
%A A Ashok Kumar
%I International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
%B Developing a Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Value Chain
%L icrisat7336
%P 110-132
%D 2013
%X Over the past two decades, India’s economy has grown on average at the
rate of 5-6% per annum. Energy consumption is one of the major indicators
of the country’s economic progress and is one of the major inputs whose use
increases with economic growth and development. India ranks the sixth in
terms of energy demand accounting for 3.6% of the global energy demand
(Prasad et al. 2007) and this is expected to increase by 4.8% in the next few
years (Gonsalves 2006). Currently, India’s energy demand is primarily met
through non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and
oil). Being short in domestic production, India mainly depends on crude oil
imports that have risen from 57.8 mt in 1999-2000 to 140.4 mt in 2009-10
which accounts for about 81% of the oil consumption in the country (GOI
2009).This in turn puts pressure on scarce foreign exchange resources (for
instance, the import bill of $75.6 billion in 2009-10). In the near future the
imports are slated to rise further with no major breakthrough in domestic oil
production and rise in vehicular population that has grown at 10% per annum
between 2001 to 2006 and expected to continue in the near future.
%T Sweet sorghum ethanol production – An economic assessment