Building on the strong momentum of the current initiative, the government intends to introduce ethanol blending levels exceeding E20 by utilising flex-fuel vehicles.
Prime Minister’s Advisor Tarun Kapoor has said that the government is working to permit ethanol blending beyond the existing E20 levels through flexi-fuel vehicles, PTI reports.
Kapoor said that the E20 programme has been very successful and multiple automobile companies are planning to roll out flexi-fuel vehicles.
E20 is an 80-20 petrol-to-ethanol blend of fuel.
He said that this is high time for India to realise the importance of biofuels and alternative sources of energy. He also mentioned that the industry has been very supportive as well. India is already producing more ethanol than its requirements; Kapoor said we need to find more ways to utilise the surplus ethanol.
Kapoor stressed that the backlash on ethanol was largely misinformation or motivated reasons. “...a lot of studies have been done, a lot of experiments have been done, and it has come out that E20 is quite good and works very well. Maybe a little bit of fuel efficiency declines somewhere, but it gets compensated with higher octane”. He also mentioned that the issues being faced are not due to blending but for other reasons.
With the ongoing West Asian crisis it is even more important to opt for biofuel when crude is almost 100 a barrel. Kapoor said “it is important that we try to have whatever is available in the country”
GOBARdhan scheme by the government brings together multiple ministries to promote compressed biogas (CBG), which currently lacks progress. "I also assure all of you that from the government side we are totally committed to biofuels. And we want to promote; we want the market to grow so that the capacity which has been created, whatever investments have been made, those investments don't have any challenges, or they don't have any anxieties." Kapoor mentioned.
