Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Friday said the government was giving a special push for ethanol as a fuel .
“With 100% use of 20% blend of bioethanol, we will be able to save ₹ 30,000 crore on import of fossil fuel. Further, the use of ethanol blended petrol decreases emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides by 40%,” he stated.
The government recently launched the Ethanol 20 programme, under which it aims to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2025 .
“Currently, the ethanol economy is ₹ 20,000 crore, which I am targeting to raise to more than ₹ 2 lakh crore. We are taking inspiration from countries like Brazil that have been using ethanol in their transport industry for more than 60 years. They have a compulsory blend of 27% ethanol in petrol,” he noted.
Flex vehicles soon
He reiterated that the government was planning to introduce flex vehicles soon. Such vehicles would be able to operate on 100% bioethanol or 100% petrol.
The government had allowed the production of ethanol from surplus and damaged food grains such as rice, corn, in addition to sugar cane that will give additional income to farmers, he observed.
Currently, the sugar industry contributed to 90% of ethanol demand as a blended fuel, but the government was making efforts to increase the contribution of food grain-based distillery, he asserted.
“Our efforts are on for capacity expansion and establishing new distillery plants to fulfil the ethanol requirement as a blended fuel in the country,” he added.
