India needs to increase ethanol production three times by 2025 to meet E20 goal

India needs to increase ethanol production three times compared to the current level to achieve the target of 20 per cent ethanol blending by 2025, claims a study by ICRA. The research claims that ethanol production in India was around 335 crore litres in 2021. This resulted in around nine per cent ethanol blending in petrol. To achieve the E20 goal, India will require to meet an ethanol production target of 1,014 crore litres by 2025. The study projects that at this trajectory, India needs to ramp up its ethanol production gradually.

The Indian government in July last year set a target of 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol by 2025. The government has also set the goal to have 100 per cent ethanol-run vehicles gradually. Under the National Policy on Biofuels (NPB), the government has been promoting the use of biofuels in India.

Besides the ethanol blending in petrol, the policy also envisages an indicative target of five per cent blending of biodiesel in diesel by 2030. In order to achieve these targets, the government has introduced multiple initiatives to increase the indigenous production of biofuels.

However, ethanol blending seems to be garnering the highest interest, claims the study by ICRA. The research also claims that the emission reduction potential of ethanol and petrol blends is expected to be as high as 50 per cent. Also, the successful implementation of the E20 program can save India four billion USD per year.

The study further claims that ethanol blending and electric vehicle adoption will go hand in hand in India in order to reduce vehicular pollution, which contributes 15 per cent to total emissions. The study claims that vehicular emissions can be controlled by higher adoption of electric vehicles, more CNG vehicles on road and higher ethanol blending in fossil fuels as well.