Why Ethanol Blending is important for India ?

 

What is Ethanol and what is 2G Ethanol ?

• Ethanol derived from molasses, a byproduct, we get when we process sugar from  sugarcane. So the ethanol thus derived is called 1G or 1st generation ethanol.

• To augment supply of ethanol the government is allowed the processing of ethanol from other sources like:- Rice Straw, Maize, Wheat straw, Bagasse, etc. So the ethanol derived from these sources other than sugarcane is referred as 2G or 2nd generation ethanol.

 What is Ethanol Blending and why is it so important for country like India ?

Ethanol Blending is a process of adding ethanol in petrol. it is because of properties of ethanol is closely resembles petrol.
There are two main reason why ethanol blending is important:-

• We import as much as 85% of our total oil needs, which means we are using our precious Foreign Exchange Reserve to make such purchases.

• and 2nd reason with ethanol blending is ethanol purchases made by government will increase farmers income overtime.

What is the composition of petrol with ethanol that goes into our fuel tank today in India (2022) ?

Answer is 10% of total fuel is ethanol. though India has had 10% blended ethanol policy for a while now. only this year we breach that target and our eventual target to get E20 or 20% of ethanol blending by the end of 2025.

Countries like USA, China, Canada, Brazil including India all of has ethanol blending programs.

What does ethanol mean for auto industry ?

The industry had committed to making all vehicles introduced after 1st April 2023 as E20 material comply. Which means where ever the fuel touches the material such as plastic, rubber, steel and so on, All of these material can take in petrol that is blended with 20% ethanol.

Environment perspective:-

• when a farmer sells rice straws or wheat straws that is left behind after he harvest rice or wheat. 1st he is able to monatize it, he makes money out of something that he could not otherwise have sold.
• 2nd there is less stubble burning and hence lesser air pollution. Which help cut emission of green house gases.
• 1 ton of sugarcane gives us 100kg of sugar and 70 liters of ethanol that means producing 1 liter of ethanol from sugar we require about 2860liters of water. so to save water the nation move towards ethanol derives from other means like rice straws, wheat straws etc.

Other points:-

Efficiency :- Fossil Fuels produce more energy than some of the biofuel.

E.g. 1 gallon of ethanol produces less energy as compared to 1 gallon of gasoline.