India Mulls E20 Fuel to Cut Vehicular Emissions
(The NewzBox) The government on Friday proposed the adoption of E20 fuel — a blend of 20% of ethanol and gasoline — as an automobile fuel in order to reduce vehicular emissions as well as the country’s oil import bill.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has published a draft notification and invited comments from the public for adoption of the fuel. The current permissible level of blending is 10% of ethanol though India reached only 5.6% of blending in 2019.
“The notification facilitates the development of E20-compliant vehicles,” according to a statement. “It will also help in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, etc. It will help reduce the oil import bill, thereby saving foreign exchange and boosting energy security.”
Vehicle compatibility
It added the compatibility of vehicles with the percentage of ethanol in the blend would be defined by the vehicle manufacturer, which would have to be displayed on the vehicle with a sticker. READ MORE
India mulls E20 fuel to cut vehicular emissions (Insights on India)
Indian government mulls E20 ethanol mixed petrol to curb vehicle emissions: Pros and cons explained (Express Drives)
Govt looks to advance 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol (Economic Times)
Transport Ministry invites public comments for introducing adoption of E20 fuel (India Ministry of Road Transport and Highways)
Excerpt from Insights on India: What has the Government done and is doing in this regard?
- National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC) has allowed Surplus rice available with the FCI to be converted to ethanol for utilization in making alcohol-based hand-sanitizers and for blending in petrol.
- The Government of India launched the EBP programme in 2003 for undertaking the blending of ethanol in petrol to address the environmental concerns due to fossil fuel burning, provide remuneration to farmers, subsidize crude imports and achieve forex savings.
- The National Policy on Biofuels, 2018 envisages that during an agriculture crop year when there is projected over supply of food grains as anticipated by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, the policy will allow conversion of these surplus quantities of food grains to ethanol, based on the approval NBCC. READ MORE
