Prime Minister to launch 2G ethanol plant in Panipat tomorrow
- India has advanced its target of achieving E20 or 20 per cent ethanol blending in 2020.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a second-generation ethanol plant in Haryana's Panipat tomorrow, which has been built at the cost of ₹900 crore. The PMO has said in a statement that the Prime Minister will dedicate this plant to the nation. The statement further said that the dedication of the plant is part of a long series of steps taken by the government over the years to boost the production and usage of biofuels in the country.
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This new second-generation ethanol plant is claimed to be capable of generating around three crore litres of ethanol annually from two lakh tonnes of rice straw, claimed the PMO statement. This plant has been built by the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), and it is located close to the Panipat refinery. Besides increasing the biofuel manufacturing capacity of the country, this plant is claimed to provide direct and indirect employment to many.
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The ethanol plant could play a key role in India's strategy to increase the mix of biofuel in fossil fuels in an attempt to reduce the fuel import bill and the country's air pollution level by cutting down the vehicular emission significantly. This project will contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gases equivalent to about 3 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per annum, claims the statement.
India achieved 9.45 per cent of ethanol blending as of March 13, 2022, as revealed by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG). The central government projects that this percentage will reach 10 per cent soon. The government first announced its plans to advance the 20 per cent blending target in December 2020. The advancement of the target prompted the oil marketing companies to invest heavily in this space. The automakers and other stakeholders too invested heavily in making the technology compliant with the new ethanol.
