{"id":221950,"date":"2023-01-11T21:01:18","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T15:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=221950"},"modified":"2023-01-11T21:01:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T15:31:18","slug":"inside-the-growing-rift-in-ethanol-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/inside-the-growing-rift-in-ethanol-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the growing rift in ethanol economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article \u201cINSIDE THE GROWING RIFT IN ETHANOL ECONOMY\u201d <\/strong>published in the Livemint <\/b>on\u00a011th January 2023<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 3 \u2013 Energy.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About the advantages and challenges in increasing ethanol-blending.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: Today, the two-wheeler industry is looking at green and sustainable future mobility solutions spanning across electric, hybrid and alternate fuels. In such a scenario, ethanol-based products are an important option.<\/p>\n

About the global success story of ethanol in Brazil<\/h5>\n

The biggest success story for ethanol in the world right now is Brazil. The country started blending ethanol with gasoline for transport in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n

A vast majority of vehicles on the road in Brazil\u2014about 86%\u2014are powered by flex fuel technology that gives consumers the flexibility to use ethanol blends between 20% and 85%. The country has achieved an average blend of 48%, by far the highest in the world.<\/p>\n

What are the advantages of increasing ethanol blending?<\/h5>\n

a)<\/strong> It is a replacement for imported crude and also helps to save foreign exchange, b)<\/strong> It is also cleaner with lower carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon tailpipe emissions, c)<\/strong> As ethanol is produced by fermenting sugarcane juice, it has also been lauded as the panacea for the surplus sugar issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: India has achieved the target of 10% ethanol blending ahead of schedule<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What are the challenges in increasing ethanol blending?<\/h5>\n

Despite various promotion measures, India has only achieved a 10% blend<\/strong> under its Ethanol Blended Petrol(EBP) Programme<\/a> (10% of ethanol blended with 90% of petrol).<\/p>\n

While India has ample sugarcane, the country doesn\u2019t yet have enough fermentation capacity<\/strong> required to make ethanol.<\/p>\n

The rise in the blending percentage of ethanol in petrol would make fuel distribution more complex<\/strong>. For instance, To achieve E20 itself, require separate fuel pumps, tanks to store the fuels, and tankers to transport them. This sort of a supply chain will come at a significant cost for oil marketing firms.<\/p>\n

In India, older vehicles don\u2019t get phased out<\/strong> automatically. So, India would need to keep the supply of E10 fuel besides operating additional pumps with higher blends.<\/p>\n

According to Niti Aayog, the price of flex-fuel four-wheelers could shoot up<\/strong> in the range of \u20b917,000-25,000. These are only preliminary estimates and the actual figures could be higher.<\/p>\n

Ethanol has 27% less energy than petrol<\/strong>. So, with higher levels of blending, the fuel economy of the vehicle will diminish<\/strong> by 4-8%. In short, the consumer will pay more for a less fuel-efficient vehicle.<\/p>\n

Promoting ethanol will directly promote Sugarcane, which is a water guzzling crop.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Above all, ethanol doesn\u2019t even solve the entire problem<\/strong> as diesel is the majority transport fuel in the country (petrol accounts for 31% of transport fuel consumption).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Why India\u2019s policy to produce ethanol-blended petrol is short-sighted<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What should be done for increasing ethanol blending?<\/h5>\n

Sugar-producing states<\/strong> of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra can initially adapt to the ethanol economy.<\/p>\n

India requires a major overhaul<\/strong> of not only vehicles<\/strong> that would need flex fuel engines but also the infrastructure<\/strong> to support various fuel types.<\/p>\n

The government is yet to stipulate a roadmap for flex fuel technologies<\/strong>. Ideally, the government should set targets for emissions and create a road map.<\/p>\n

Directly incentivize consumers like Brazil<\/strong>: In Brazil, pure ethanol has been incentivized by lower taxation\u2014it is approximately 30% cheaper than E27 fuel. Consumers were also directly incentivized through tax exemptions for buying flex fuel vehicles. India can follow a similar approach.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cINSIDE THE GROWING RIFT IN ETHANOL ECONOMY\u201d published in the Livemint on\u00a011th January 2023. Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Energy. Relevance: About the advantages and challenges in increasing ethanol-blending. News: Today, the two-wheeler industry is looking at green and sustainable future mobility solutions spanning across electric, hybrid and… Continue reading Inside the growing rift in ethanol economy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10501],"class_list":["post-221950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-live-mint","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}