India has set a target of 20% ethanol blending in petrol by next year. The current national average blending is about 16%, up from 1.5% a decade ago. “Today I don’t agonize about 20%,…about availability of feedstock,” Puri said at the CII Bioenergy Summit, adding that he was confident about hitting the target in 2025.
“We are already talking about scaling up the target,” he said, indicating India’s biofuel ambition was going to get bigger. “We are already applying our minds to that,” he said, adding that more conversations will be needed to assess the feedstock availability and the industry’s confidence in scaling up.
A raft of government policies has helped attract massive investments in ethanol manufacturing in the last few years. This has helped attack the key problem of supply shortage, which had held back ethanol blending in the past decade.
Petrol-powered vehicles can easily use 10% blended ethanol but require minor modifications for using 20% blended fuel.
State-run oil companies have also begun selling pure ethanol or E100 at about 400 filling stations spread across four states, Puri said, adding that the aim is to put filling infrastructure in place so that vehicle makers are encouraged to produce and sell E85 vehicles. E85 vehicles are powered by fuel containing 85% ethanol and 15% petrol.
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