India Becomes First to Produce Bio-Bitumen Commercially

India has pioneered in commercial production of bio-bitumen, which is an environmentally friendly substitute of petroleum-based bitumen in the construction of roads. The milestone was announced by Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari at the CSIR Technology Transfer Ceremony in New Delhi and credited the breakthrough to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The innovation will transform agricultural byproducts and biomass into a feasible binder to decrease the use of fossil fuels and address the issue of burning crop residues.

What is Bio-Bitumen?

Crude oil is a major consumer of petroleum in infrastructure because asphalt is bonded by Bitumen, a sticky black hydrocarbon that is an ingredient of the road surfaces.

Instead of using biomass, e.g. crop stubble, sugarcane bagasse, rice husk, bio-bitumen is produced by procedures such as pyrolysis and hydroprocessing to produce similar performance with lower carbon emissions.

Key advantages:

• Reduces greenhouse gases up to 60-70 percent as compared to conventional bitumen.

• Managing the stubble-burning pollution, a seasonal crisis in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

• Increases self-sufficiency using massive waste of agriculture (more than 500 million tonnes per year).

Technological Breakthrough of CSIR

The Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) based in Dehradun, by CSIR, led the development in a period of five years, scaled down lab prototypes to commercial viability through pilot plants. 

The industrial transfer of the technology allows mass production with the first output aimed at national highway projects within the Bharatmala Pariyojana.

The move was welcomed by Union Minister of Science and technology Jitendra Singh as the beginning of clean and green highways, which went hand in hand with the Waste to Wealth mission.

Congruency with National Initiatives

The launch will help the government in several ways:

• Viksit Bharat 2047: Sustainable infrastructure to a developed India.

• Atma Nirbhar Bharat: Native technology to lessen reliance on imports of bitumen (India imports 40 percent of the bitumen requirements).

• Circular Economy: Turns waste into ₹10, 000 crore+ value chain potential.

• Net-Zero Roads: Pilot blends (10-20% bio-bitumen) that was tested on durability in high traffic areas.

Gadkari observed that it would save it ₹5,000 crore per year in imports and reduce pollution of millions of vehicles.

Scalability and Production Process

Bio-bitumen is manufactured by the following steps:

• Pretreatment of biomass and pyrolysis to bio-oil.

• Hydrodeoxygenation upgrading to asphalt-grade.

• Combining with petroleum bitumen to make hybrid mixes.

The patented approach by CSIR-IIP guarantees such properties to correspond to BIS, such as penetration, softening point, and viscosity (IS 73:2018).

The commercial plants with the support of the public-private collaboration are to reach 1 million tonnes/year capacity by 2030, which will serve 20% of the 5 million tonnes annual demand in India.

International and Economic Effects

Being the pioneer commercial manufacturer, India will become a frontrunner in green infrastructure technology, which they will potentially export to Southeast Asian and African asphalt markets.

On the economic front it provides employment in the rural bio-refineries, increases the level of farmers' incomes through waste buyback (₹1,500-2,000/tonne) and reduces logistics expenses.