New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS): NITI Aayog member and scientist Vijay Kumar Saraswat on Thursday highlighted the country's progress in coal to methanol production in the past eight years and made a strong pitch for giving the latter an alternate fuel status.

Saraswat, participating in the International Methanol seminar in Delhi, told IANS that the country was making commendable progress in developing methanol from coal and with greater participation of industries and enterprises, the imports of crude petroleum, diesel and other petrochemicals will be reduced to a large extent.

"The objective of this programme is to promote large-scale methanol usage in India. We invited scientists and industrialists from India and abroad to this seminar. Countries like China use 95,000 tonnes of methanol daily for cooking, vehicles, and boilers. Over the past eight years, in collaboration with NITI Aayog, we have made significant progress - developing methanol from coal and carbon dioxide, and creating generator sets running on methylene. This international seminar was aimed at advancing these initiatives further," he said.

"Giving alternate fuel status to methanol will make it omnipresent. We are blending methanol in various proportions. Today, methanol-powered four-wheelers and buses are being manufactured. Implementing it through a dedicated government policy will make it a bigger success," VK Saraswat pointed out.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the International Methanol Seminar and Expo while emphasising the role of making a shift to biofuels for attaining self-sustainability in energy and also in reducing logistics costs.

Addressing the seminar, the Union Minister noted two key concerns - rising pollution and fossil fuel imports and also underlined the urgent need to reduce these imports for self-sufficiency, especially in light of global geopolitical uncertainties.

He highlighted the importance of biofuels in achieving energy independence, bolstering the agricultural economy, and ensuring the prosperity of India's farmers. He said the country can significantly reduce logistics costs by using alternative fuels such as methanol, ethanol, and bio-CNG.

The International Methanol Seminar, organised by the NITI Aayog saw the presence of Suman Bery, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Saraswat, Member NITI Aayog and Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the union government.

The Union Minister appreciated the NITI Aayog for organising the International Seminar and Expo on Methanol and also visited the Expo where methanol-based products and machinery were displayed.

He informed about the country's rapid strides in the biofuel sector, particularly in methanol and praised NITI Aayog's efforts to promote methanol.

"Low-quality coal, which is available in a few states, is also being used in making methanol," he noted.

Briefing on the waste-to-energy technology, he spoke about the production of bio-CNG from rice straw and also called for additional research into more efficient biomass sources.

"This approach has shown promise in 475 projects, with over 40 already up and running in states such as Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka. The conversion ratio of rice straw to Bio-CNG is roughly 5:1 in tonnes," the Union Minister pointed out.