Petrol pumps selling biofuels jumped threefold in five years

The number of petrol pumps selling biofuels in the country has increased threefold from 29,897 in 2016-17 to 67,641 in 2021-22, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep S Puri has said. The country's ethanol demand is poised to grow to 10.16 billion litres by 2025, the minister noted. He also said that the country is ready from the supply side to launch E20, and has advanced the target by five years from 2030 under the ethanol production goal of 1,000 crore litres to April 2023.

While speaking at the plenary session on 'A giant leap for biofuels - Ethanol blending & SATAT Scheme' at Siam's International Conference on Biofuels…, the minister said that there is a need to massively upscale the production of flex-fuel engine vehicles in the country. In the case of E20, 20 denotes the percentage of ethanol mixed with petrol.

He also said that in order to upscale the flex-fuel engine vehicles in the country, there needs to be more options at various price points, including two-wheelers and three-wheelers, and the country needs them quickly. He said that there are projected timelines for the roll-out of such flex-fuel E10 and E20-compatible vehicles, but there is a pressing need to advance those timelines.

Encouraging the auto OEMs, the minister assured the automobile companies that there will be a guaranteed consumer demand for flex-fuel and E20-compatible vehicles. He added that the government will provide comprehensive support from the supply, policy, and demand side for making the sale of flex-fuel E10 and E20 vehicles a viable business proposition for the auto industry.

The minister also talked about the support provided by the government to bio-energy technologies such as CBG with initiatives such as SATAT, under which 37 CBG plants have been commissioned, and approximately 9,000 tonne of Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) have been sold.