Ethanol production exceeds E20 blending need, govt looking for additional uses: PM Advisor Tarun Kapoor

New Delhi [India], September 9 (ANI): Ethanol production in India has exceeded the quantity currently required for petrol blending under the E20 programme, prompting the government to look for additional applications for ethanol and other biofuels, Prime Minister’s Advisor Tarun Kapoor said on Wednesday.
“Ethanol production has gone beyond our imagination. It is now more than what we had planned for and, rather, more than what we actually need for blending,” Kapoor said while delivering the keynote video address at a conference organised by the India Sugar and Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA).
Kapoor said the achievement of E20 blending has been a major success and noted that studies and experiments have established that E20 fuel works well.
He said concerns related to vehicle performance due to ethanol blending needed to be examined in the context of available evidence.
“If we tried to find out whether there were actual problems, it came out very clearly that the issues being faced were generally due to other reasons and not because of ethanol blending,” Kapoor said.
According to Kapoor, the expansion of ethanol production has created the need to develop fresh demand for the fuel and other biofuels so that the capacity established across the country can be fully utilised.
The government is considering ethanol blending beyond E20, but such higher blends would be linked to flex-fuel vehicles. Kapoor said petrol pumps would also need to make higher ethanol blends available, including pure ethanol with suitable additives, alongside the availability of vehicles capable of using them.
He also pointed to the possibility of developing biofuel products that could be used in diesel, given the large share of diesel in India’s refinery output.
“If we can also get some product which can be used in diesel, then it will be great,” Kapoor said.
He said India needs to find ways to balance petrol and diesel demand, particularly at a time when the country is seeking to reduce its dependence on imported crude oil.
Kapoor also referred to ongoing experiments involving isobutanol, saying successful development of the technology could provide another route for large-scale biofuel deployment.
The government is also examining applications for biofuels outside the transport sector, including cooking and industrial uses. Kapoor said products made from sugarcane residues and byproducts, as well as surplus food grains, should find wider markets.
He said the government is working to promote compressed biogas (CBG), though progress in the sector has been slower than expected. The recently announced Gobardhan scheme, which seeks to bring together benefits available through different ministries, could help accelerate CBG development.
Kapoor said the expansion of the biofuel market would be important to protect the investments made in creating production capacity.
The government wants the biofuel market to grow so that the created capacity and investments are not put at risk, Kapoor said.
The government’s focus on additional applications comes as ethanol production capacity has expanded and the country has reached the E20 blending level in petrol. The next phase involves creating demand for ethanol and other biofuels through suitable vehicle technologies and applications beyond conventional petrol blending. (ANI)