OMCs Blend Record 1.5 Billion Litres Ethanol with Petrol in 2017-18
Ajay Modi (Business Standard) OMCs had entered into contracts with sugar mills to procure 1.6 billion litres of ethanol during the last ethanol year.
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In June this year, the Centre, for the first time, fixed a separate price for ethanol produced from B-heavy molasses and C-heavy molasses. The former, along with ethanol produced from sugarcane juice, commands a higher price than ethanol produced from C-heavy molasses.
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The facility of direct conversion of juice into ethanol helps in regulating sugar output in years when there is a glut in supply of the sweetener. Besides offering attractive prices, the Union government is also allowing mills to borrow soft loans to expand ethanol capacity.
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For the OMCs, ethanol blending has multiple implications. It leads to lower reliance on imported oil and partly protects them from the impact of forex fluctuation. Sugar industry executives are confident that when the next tender is floated by OMCs for the 2019-20 ethanol year, the country may well move to a blending as high as 10 per cent.
For the new ethanol supply year that started from December 2018, a quantity of 2.6 billion litres has been finalised by the OMCs. “If these quantities are supplied, the national blending in the 2018-19 year could go up to 8 per cent,” said an industry executive. READ MORE
Foodmin seeks higher price for ethanol from state companies (Economic Times)
Government Mulls Additional Rs 7,400 Crore Soft Loan To Sugar Mills (Bloomberg Quint)
View: Why ethanol is not a suitable fuel for automobiles (Economic Times)