Burning fuel to carry fuel: Govt’s ethanol programme to face transport challenges

Source– The post is based on the article “Burning fuel to carry fuel: Govt’s ethanol programme to face transport challenges” published in The Indian Express on 24th September 2022.

Syllabus: GS3- Environment

Relevance– Ethanol blending programme

News– The article explains the need to have a new logistical arrangement for transporting ethanol. It also proposes solutions for transporting it.

India’s ethanol production for blending with petrol has soared to an estimated 450 crore litres in the current 2021-22 supply year.

The government has set the target of 20 per cent blending by 2025-26 that is projected at 1,016 crore liters by NITI Aayog. It is creating new logistical challenges.

What are the logistical challenges?

Currently, the entire quantity of ethanol is being transported by road on truck-tankers. Carrying the projected 1,016 crore litres would require about 3.5 lakh tankers.

This will prove very costly. It will also result in greenhouse gas emissions of around 76 million tonnes.

What needs to be done?

The government can consider alternative options for ethanol movement, including through dedicated pipelines, rail tank wagons and ferries in coastal areas.

They can also look at the RORO (roll-on/roll-off) model of moving ethanol truck-tankers themselves by rail.

In Brazil, the entire movement of oil and ethanol is through pipelines, railway and coastal ships.

There is no need for dedicated pipelines for ethanol. We can use multi-product pipelines.

There is a need for precautions because ethanol is a solvent that dissolves the gums formed in gasoline and accumulated in tanks. We need to have filters in fuel hose pipes to resolve this issue.