Explained: How India¡¯s Ethanol Blending Plan Could Undermine Its Food Security

Hardeep Singh Puri, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, stated that OMCs have attained 9.99 per cent ethanol blending in gasoline, well ahead of the year-end aim. Now, on track to attain 10% blending, the country's aim for ethanol blending is 20 percent by 2025, with Rs 1000 crore litres of ethanol needed to achieve the target.

OMCs improved their quantity delivery from 189 crore litres to over 420 crore litres beginning in fiscal year 2019. In terms of procurement situation, OMC has provided between 36 and 41% of their overall contractual amounts. Sugar producers are estimated to rise capacity by 2-4 times over the upcoming 3-5 years.

What is Ethanol Blending?

Ethanol is an agriculture- based product derived primarily from molasses, a derivative of the sugar production. It is among the most important biofuels, manufactured naturally by yeast fermentation method or through petrochemical methods such as ethylene hydration.

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The Ethanol Blending Program (EBP) aims to mix ethanol with gasoline, trying to bring it into the classification of biofuels and saving big amounts of money by reducing fuel imports and greenhouse emissions. The Indian government has accelerated the benchmark of 20% ethanol blend in gasoline (also called E20).

The Central government has emphasised that improved ethanol use might potentially minimize the country's oil import bill. The E20 programme is expected to save the country 30,000 crore rupees per year.

The state has also published a report by an expert panel on the Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India by 2025. The action plan calls for a steady rollout of ethanol-blended energy to reach E10 fuel flow by April 2022, followed by a staged rollout of E20 from April 2023 to April 2025.

To bring compatible automobiles, the commission suggested rolling out E20 material-compliant and E10 motor autos in April 2023, followed by manufacturing of E20-tuned vehicle engines in April 2025.

What is included in the roadmap?

The Government in the report has indicated that greater ethanol consumption can help reduce the country's oil import bill. Furthermore, the state intends to promote the use of water-saving harvests, such as maize, in the process of ethanol production, as well as the manufacturing of ethanol from non-food feedstock.

Fuel efficiency: According to the committee report, while utilising E20, results in a projected loss of 7% fuel efficiency for 4 wheelers and 4% for 2-wheelers. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers briefed the review panel that motor adjustments (hardware and tuning) could minimise the efficiency loss caused by blended fuel.

Reports suggest that due to the corrosive properties of E20, fresh engine characteristics and modifications to fuel system, as well as some rubber and plastic parts, would be required. Furthermore, due to the reduced power density of the fuel, the engines may need to be reconfigured to attain the expected power-, efficiency-, and emission-level alignment. This can be addressed by developing compatible vehicles.

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The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways released a gazette notice in March 2021 implementing E20, E85, or E100 compatibility tags on automobiles. It is believed to lay the groundwork for flex fuel vehicles (FFV).

A FFV is a type of vehicle that uses alternative energy sources and has an internal combustion engine that can operate on more than one fuel, with both fuels collected in the same tank.

Observers believe that vehicles will take a long time to reach E20 compatibility.

Vehicles manufactured in India since 2008 are E10 resource-compatible (rubber and plastic elements) and E5 fuel-efficient compliant (5 percent ethanol mixed in petrol), but their motors are not adjusted to E10 for optimal efficiency.

At the next stage, when E10 fuel becomes available throughout the country, new vehicles will require engine adjustments.

Meanwhile, some argue that India's ambitious desire to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels by furthering ethanol produced from rice, corn, and sugar could adversely impact the country's food security.

Associated consequences

According to a latest report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), for India to fulfil its objective of 20 percent ethanol blended in petrol by 2025 (commonly known as the E20 target), it will need to introduce in more area under cultivation of raw material products which can further be transformed into ethanol¡ªland that can be effectively used for the production of renewable fuel and for promoting India's electric vehicle adoption initiative.

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Experts state that the utilisation of soil on this magnitude to grow crops for ethanol manufacturing is questionable given that sugarcane is a water-intensive crop and the availability of compromised or excess grains is uncertain.

According to IEEFA, rising manufacturing of food-based raw material for ethanol production might not have been the best use of land in a hungry state. The World Hunger Index 2021 currently ranks India 101st out of 116 nations. Furthermore, the report states that soil can be used much more effectively to generate renewable energy for Electric Vehicles (EV) than it can to plant crops for ethanol.

Independent analysts claim that existing ethanol production based on excess supply or compromised foodgrains can be preserved at current levels or at E10 (10 percent ethanol-blended fuel), but that the E20 goal may be an overly ambitious goal for India.

Furthermore, experts say that the ethanol goal will not significantly reduce global warming emissions, could be detrimental to country's food security, and will only help us inch closer to energy security.

According to IndiaSpend, E20 will minimise 5% of the transport industry's GHG emissions by 2025. (not including life cycle emissions). Hence, the report says, "Is it worth putting in so many resources to achieve just 5%?"

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