The slow and excruciating death of fossil fuel use has opened up avenues for new technologies to emerge. One of them is bio-bitumen. Though it is in its nascent stage, India is ready to make giant strides in this domain.
Why does India need bitumen in general and bio-bitumen in particular?
In 2021, Praj Industries came up with its own method of producing bio-bitumen. Last year, MoRTH head Nitin Gadkari said that stubble from crops would be used for producing bio-bitumen. The first use of such technology is being seen in a road laid down in Odisha. There is a scheme in the pipeline to produce tractor-mounted machines for accelerating the production.
Bitumen is a black, viscous mixture of hydrocarbons. It can be obtained naturally or as a byproduct of petroleum distillation. After industries are done refining lighter petrol, diesel, high-octane fuels, and gasoline, they start treating remaining heavier by-products. These by-products, when free of impurities, are referred to as bitumen.
Bitumens are economical, thermoplastic (can be softened and melted by heat), viscoelastic (can behave like a liquid or a solid), have favorable melting points, are recyclable, are highly adhesive, and have diverse color variations. They are highly resistant to damage from oil and water. Due to these reasons, bitumen is heavily used in the construction industry, mainly for roads and highways.
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It is now becoming a compulsion in road construction
Given the fact that crude is the main source of bitumen and that crude is itself the main villain in the new world order, it is tough for countries like India to use bitumen. See, no matter what India does, it can’t compromise with its development goals. For that purpose, it needs road transportation to transport goods from one place to another.
Nitin Gadkari has taken charge of it. Every day, India adds 40 km of roads to its network. Gadkari has said that the number will jump to 60km per day in 2023. His ultimate target is 100 km per day.
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Even at this juncture, India’s annual bitumen need is 80 lakh tonnes, 50 lakh tonnes of which we are producing. The remaining 30 lakh metric tons are imported from 41 countries. Iraq, Iran, and the UAE occupy a major chunk of the import basket of the 2nd largest importer of bitumen.
It can’t go on forever, and allegations of harming the environment are always around the corner. Given the fact that we need foreign investments and that foreign companies are looking for ESG scores to invest, exploring bio-bitumens is the only way forward.
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