Indian sugarcane fields could yield a flex-fuel bonanza

Source: The post is based on an article “Indian sugarcane fields could yield a flex-fuel bonanza” published in Live Mint on 26^th October 2022.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Environment

Relevance: benefits of ethanol blending

News: The article discusses the benefits of ethanol blending in Brazil and measures that need to be adopted by India for ethanol blending fuel.

Ethanol blended petrol was first used in Brazil after the deployment of flex-fuel technology. Today, around 93% of the vehicles in Brazil are capable of running on ethanol.

What are the benefits of ethanol blending and how has it benefited Brazil?

Ethanol emits between 44% and 52% less greenhouse gas emissions as compared to petrol. So, when it is combined with petrol it significantly reduces the CO2 emissions of a vehicle. Whereas, even new technologies like Electric Vehicles require power for charging batteries, i.e. fossil fuel-based power plants.

The ethanol blending has helped Brazil in reducing contribution of CO2 equivalents into the atmosphere.

Further, ethanol production in Brazil is highly efficient and most facilities use residual waste from the process (bagasse) for power.

In 2020, around 5% of the total power consumption of the country was met by bio-electricity generated from bagasse.

How ethanol is produced in Brazil and what are requirements to produce ethanol?

Brazilian ethanol is produced from sugarcane. It is one of the world’s leading producers of sugar ethanol and one of the world’s largest producers of sugarcane.

The ethanol produced from sugarcane in Brazil has a much higher energy balance than corn-based ethanol produced by the US.

Further, very few other countries can produce sugar ethanol because sugarcane needs to be converted into ethanol within 24 hours of harvesting else it spoils.

Therefore, all sugar ethanol production plants have to be located in the centre of the fields from which they get their raw material.

So, looking at the requirements to produce ethanol, India stands at the position to produce sugar-based ethanol blending.

How India can produce ethanol?

India is a major sugarcane producer like Brazil and it is one of the very few countries in the world that can adapt its fuel supply to incorporate ethanol.

Therefore, India needs to adopt production technique like Brazil and mandate that all internal combustion engine vehicles be redesigned to incorporate flex-fuel technology to use ethanol blended fuel.

This will eventually help India to reduce CO2 emissions and help achieve India to fulfil its environmental targets.

What should be done?

India’s Union minister for transport Nitin Gadkari launched the country’s first flex-fuel car that was capable of running on petrol, ethanol or any mixture of the two. However, ethanol is not a complete solution to the climate challenges of the world but it is a great step towards achieving a sustainable future.

You have missed this point:  [AS1]

as much as EVs are themselves zero emission, as long as the batteries they use are charged using electricity from the power grid, their net carbon impact is still high because a significant proportion of our power plants use fossil fuel for generation.