Understanding ethanol blending

• While addressing the nation on the 76th Independence Day, the Indian PM announced that India has achieved its target of blending 10% sugarcane-extracted ethanol in petrol, ahead of schedule.

Ethanol Blending

Meaning

• Blending ethanol with petrol to burn less fossil fuel while running vehicles

Ethanol

• Ethanol is an agricultural by-product obtained from sugarcane, rice husk or maize.
• First Generation Ethanol:
• Ethanol produced from other sources besides molasses
• Second Generation Ethanol: * Ethanol extracted from rice straw, wheat straw, corn cobs, corn stover, bagasse, bamboo and woody biomass.

E10 Policy of India:

• 10% of the petrol that powers your vehicle is ethanol.
• India’s aim is to increase this ratio to 20% originally by 2025.

Other Countries on Ethanol Blending:

• U.S., China, Canada and Brazil all have ethanol blending programmes
• Brazil had legislated that the ethanol content in petrol should be in the 18-27.5% range, and it finally touched the 27% target in 2021.

Advantages of Ethanol Blending:

• Help bring down our share of oil imports (almost 85%).
• Conserve Foreign Enxchange Reserve
• As per NITI Aayog, It can save $4 billion per annum
• Help increase farmers’ incomes
• Checks Pollution:
• Emitting nil carbon dioxide.
• By using the left-over residue stubble burning will also reduce.
• Reduce greenhouse gases equivalent to 3 lakh tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum.

Challenges before Automobile Industry:

• Optimisation of engine for higher ethanol blends
• Conduct of durability studies on engines and field trials before introducing E20 compliant vehicles.
• Need to continue E10 supply in tandem with E20 supply, storage would have to be separate which then raises costs.
• Alternatives Automobile Industry has:
• Use of Biofules as it demands least incremental investment for manufacturers.

Issues with the Transition:

• Nitrous oxide pollution is not checked.
• Water intensive crops like Sugarcane, rice, etc. are used.
• Supply chain management issues
• The 2021 Ethanol Roadmap forecasts that an additional 800 crore litres of ethanol is needed annually to meet the target.
• Even if all other 11 planned farm waste distilleries have similar rates of production, their combined input would barely produce 5% of the additional annual ethanol requirement.
• Food Security Challenge:
• Global corn, or maize, production is down, and this adds an incentive for India to try and export more.
• In France, the corn harvest has dipped 19%.
• Reductions in forecast production have been seen for at least seven other countries in Europe.
• U.S. production expectations have also been revised slightly downward.

Conclusion

• Given the uncertainty about future production, India may not find it easy to simultaneously strengthen domestic food supply systems, set aside adequate stocks for lean years, maintain an export market for grains, and divert grain to ethanol at the expected rate in coming years, and this is an issue that warrants continued monitoring.