New Delhi, Nov 29 (Agency) Under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme, public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) are selling E10 (10% ethanol blended petrol) as per availability. For the ongoing Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2020-21, OMCs have sold 3672.46 crore litres of ethanol blended petrol during the period 1 December, 2020 to 14 November, 2021, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
A joint study was conducted by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) along with Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) to access the effect of E10 (10% ethanol blending in petrol) on existing vehicles. The findings indicated that the hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions decreased by about 20% with E10 compared to neat petrol on both two wheelers and passenger cars. Subsequently another project on E20 (20% ethanol blending in petrol) showed that carbon monoxide emissions decreased by about 50% in two wheelers and about 30% in four wheelers by using E20 compared to neat petrol. India aims to sell only blended petrol with 20 pc ethanol (E20) from 2025-26. According to officials in the know, all new vehicles sold in the country will also need to be E20 compliant from 2025 onward. This move may force automobile manufactures to reconfigure their existing petrol vehicle offerings to operate using the blended fuel.
In a media interaction the day after Government hiked the ethanol procurement price, Petroleum Secretary, Tarun Kapoor said the intent is to only sell E20 petrol across the country from 2025 onward while E20 blended petrol will be introduced from 2023. “In the transitional period, both E20 and E10 (petrol blended with 10 per cent ethanol) will be available but at different retail outlets,” he said, adding that there will be no separate dispensing unit for E20 ethanol at a single retail outlet. The existing dispensing units will just start selling E20 ethanol. The Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) has informed that the present alcohol/ethanol distillation capacity in the country is around 722 crore litres per annum which has to be increased to estimated 1500 crore litres per annum to meet the requirement of 20% ethanol blending under the EBP Programme and requirement of other sectors.