Understanding Ethanol Blending

the story So Far: Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India has achieved its target of blending 10% sugarcane extracted ethanol into petrol ahead of schedule. Addressing the nation from Red Fort on 76th Independence Day, he called for energy independence, “We need to be atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in our energy sector”. India is one of the largest oil importing countries in the world.

What is Ethanol Blending?

Mixing ethanol with petrol to burn less fossil fuel while driving vehicles is called ethanol blending. Ethanol is an agricultural by-product obtained primarily from the processing of sugar from sugarcane, but also from other sources such as rice bran or maize. Currently, 10% of the petrol that drives your vehicle is ethanol. Although we’ve had an E10 – or 10% ethanol policy for some time now, it’s only this year that we’ve achieved that ratio. India originally aimed to increase this ratio to 20% by 2030, but in 2021, when the NITI Aayog presented the ethanol roadmap, that deadline was extended to 2025.

Ethanol blending will help reduce our share (about 85%) of oil imports, on which we spend significant amounts of precious foreign exchange. Secondly, more ethanol production will help in increasing the income of farmers.

“India’s net imports of petroleum stood at 185 million tonnes in 2020-21 at a cost of $55 billion,” says a June 2021 NITI Aayog report, and that a successful ethanol blending program could save the country $4 billion per year. Is.

What are first generation and second generation ethanol?

With a view to augment the supply of ethanol, the government has allowed procurement of ethanol produced from sources other than molasses – that is, first generation ethanol or 1 g. In addition to molasses, ethanol can be extracted from materials such as rice straw, wheat straw, corn cobs, corn stubble, bagasse, bamboo and woody biomass, which are second-generation ethanol sources, or 2 g.

Inaugurating the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) 2G ethanol plant last week, Mr Modi not only noted the potential for higher farmer incomes, but also noted the benefits to farmers selling leftover rice stubble after harvesting . Make biofuel. This means less stubble burning and hence less air pollution.

How have other countries fared?

Although the US, China, Canada and Brazil all have ethanol blending programs, as a developing country, Brazil stands out. It had legislated that the ethanol content in petrol should be in the range of 18-27.5%, and finally it touched the 27% target in 2021.

How does this affect the auto industry?

At the time of the NITI Aayog report in June last year, the industry had committed the government to make all vehicles E20 material compliant by 2023. This meant that petrol points, plastic, rubber, steel and other components would be required in the vehicles. Comply to contain/store fuels containing 20% ​​ethanol. Without such a change, rusting is an obvious obstacle.

Rajesh Menon, director general of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, says the industry is committed to becoming E20 engine compliant by 2025, which means the engine will need to be tweaked to process petrol that is mixed with 20% ethanol. has been done.

Are there other options?

Auto industry sources say they prefer the use of biofuels as the next step over other options such as electric vehicles (EVs), hydrogen power and compressed natural gas. This is mainly because biofuels demand minimal incremental investment for manufacturers.

Even as the industry is recovering from the economic damage bought by the pandemic, it is bound to make some changes to follow India’s promise of net-zero emissions by 2070.

What are the challenges facing the industry when it comes to 20% ethanol blended fuels?

The NITI Aayog report states that the challenges facing the industry are: “Optimization of engines for high ethanol blends and conducting durability studies on engines and field trials before introducing E20 compliant vehicles.”

Sources say that the auto industry is in talks with the government to plan this change. Several issues are at stake for this effort. Storage is going to be the main concern, because if the E10 supply is to continue with the E20 supply, storage will have to be separated which then drives up the cost.

What have been the objections against this transition?

Ethanol emits completely zero carbon dioxide. The use of leftover paddy crop residue for making ethanol will also reduce stubble burning. The 2G ethanol project, inaugurated last week, will reduce greenhouse gases by the equivalent of nearly three million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to replacing about 63,000 cars annually on our roads. However, it does not reduce emissions of another major pollutant – nitrous oxide.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) talks about inefficient land use in ethanol production in a report in March. “We can use land more efficiently by generating renewable energy for EV batteries,” said report author Charles Warringham. For example, to meet the annual travel distance of one hectare of solar-generating electric vehicles for recharged electric vehicles, 187 hectares of maize-derived ethanol is required, regardless of whether electricity transmission, battery charging and grid storage are generated. Have an account for the loss.

The water needed to grow crops for ethanol is another debatable issue. a lecturer in Hindu In May it was said that sugarcane is the cheapest source of ethanol for India. On average, one ton of sugarcane can produce 100 kg of sugar and 70 liters of ethanol – that is, one liter of ethanol from sugar requires 2,860 liters of water.

Therefore, a move has been made towards waste based extraction, such as through coarse grain. But supply could still be a problem, though the NITI Aayog report sounds right – “The roadmap estimates that ethanol production from domestic cereals will increase four-fold by 2025.” The unusually wet monsoon season may have helped increase grain production in recent years, but the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) in its August 2021 analysis doubts that those production growth can be sustained. .

Mr Voringham says sugarcane will continue to be the primary source of ethanol, even with 12 planned agricultural waste – or 2G ethanol – distilleries. The first, inaugurated last week, has the capacity to produce 100 kilo liters a day or 36.5 million liters annually. The 2021 Ethanol Roadmap estimates that an additional 800 crore liters of ethanol will be required annually to meet the target. He points out that “assuming that the other 11 planned agricultural waste furnaces have similar rates of production, their combined inputs would produce hardly 5% of the additional annual ethanol requirement.”

What about food safety concerns?

Mr. Voringam also talks about the impact on crop production for food and fodder. “There are already signs that more sugarcane is being grown and the Indian government encouraged more corn production at the India Maize Summit in May, citing its use for ethanol production as the reason for the push. Sugar and sugarcane production that ends up in petrol tanks also cannot be stored in food platters, in animal feed, stored in warehouses, or exported. As was evident in India’s wheat crop earlier this year, climate change-induced heatwaves are a worrying factor and could produce a lower-than-expected crop with little notice,” he says.

Global maize, or maize, production is low, and this adds an incentive for India to try and export more. In France, corn harvests have declined by 19%, and at least seven other countries in Europe have seen a reduction in forecast production. US production expectations have also been revised downwards slightly.

“Given the uncertainty about future production, India needs to simultaneously strengthen domestic food supply systems, set aside adequate stocks for short years, maintain an export market for cereals, and produce grain at the expected rate in the coming years.” Converting to ethanol may not be easy, and this is an issue that needs to be constantly monitored,” he warned.