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Ethanol Blending in Petrol

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Science & Technology
  • Published
    18th Aug, 2022

Context

Recently, the Prime Minister of India announced that India has achieved its target of blending 10% sugarcane-extracted ethanol in petrol, ahead of schedule. 

About Ethanol

  • It is an agricultural by-product which is mainly obtained from the processing of sugar from sugarcane, but also from other sources such as rice husk or maize. 
  • Ethanol is an organic chemical compound.
  • It is simple alcohol with the chemical formula C2H6O. 
  • It is a volatile, flammable, colourless liquid with a characteristic wine-like odour and pungent taste.
  • Ethanol can be produced from crops that have high starch content like sugarcane, maize, wheat, etc.
  • In India, ethanol is mainly produced from sugarcane molasses by the fermentation process.
  • Ethanol can be mixed with gasoline to form different blends.

What is Ethanol Blending?

  • The ethanol blending is the process of mixing petrol with ethanol.
  • The mixture is called Ethanol Fuel / Gasohol which is considered as a quasi-renewable energy.
  • Ethanol is a biofuel derived from Sugarcane molasses (a by-product in the conversion of sugarcane to sugar), corn, sorghum etc.
  • In India, the practice of blending ethanol was started in 2001.
  • Ethanol blending for the first time was mentioned in the Auto fuel policy of 2003.
  • Later, the National Policy on Bio-fuels, 2009 made it mandatory for oil companies to sell petrol blended with at least 5% of ethanol.
  • Distilleries
    • Sugar cane would likely continue to be the primary source for ethanol even with the 12 planned farm waste — or 2G ethanol — distilleries. 
    • The first, inaugurated in Aug 2022, has a capacity to produce 100 kilo litres a day, or 3.65 crore litres a year. 
    • Amount of Ethanol needed to reach the target-
      • The 2021 Ethanol Roadmap forecasts that an additional 800 crore litres of ethanol is needed annually to meet the target. 
      • Assuming the other 11 planned farm waste distilleries have similar rates of production, their combined input would barely produce 5% of the additional annual ethanol requirement.

Current usage and target achieved

  • Currently, 10% of the petrol that powers the vehicle is ethanol. 
  • Though India has had an E10 — or 10% ethanol as policy for a while, it is only this year that we have achieved that proportion. 

New target

  • India’s aim is to increase this ratio to 20% originally by 2030 but in 2021, when NITI Aayog put out the ethanol roadmap, that deadline was advanced to 2025. 

Verifying, please be patient.