Indian Express Editorial Analysis
11 May 2022

Ethanol Blending

GS Paper – 3 Growth & Development, Environmental Pollution & Degradation.

Why in the news?

In India, ethanol mixing in gasoline has reached 9.99 percent.

 

What exactly is ethanol blending?

  • Ethanol is a major biofuel that is created naturally by yeast fermentation or by petrochemical processes such as ethylene hydration.
  • Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP): It aims to reduce the country's reliance on crude oil imports, reduce carbon emissions, and increase farmer income.
  • Blending Aim: The Government of India has moved the target for 20% ethanol blending in petrol (commonly known as E20) from 2030 to 2025.

 

What Importance Does Ethanol Blending Have?

 

Reduce reliance on petroleum:

  • By mixing ethanol with gasoline, it is possible to reduce the quantity of fuel necessary to run an automobile, lowering reliance on imported, costly, and polluting petroleum.
  • India now imports 85 percent of its oil needs.

 

Spend Less:

  • In 2020-21, India's net petroleum imports were 185 million tonnes at a cost of USD551 billion.
  • Because the majority of petroleum products are utilised in transportation, the E20 programme has the potential to save the government USD4 billion each year.

 

Pollution Reduction:

  • Ethanol is a less polluting fuel that provides comparable efficiency at a cheaper cost than gasoline.
  • Some of the supporting arguments used in the E20 roadmap include the availability of large arable land, rising production of foodgrains and sugarcane leading to surpluses, the availability of technology to produce ethanol from plant-based sources, and the feasibility of making vehicles compliant with ethanol blended petrol (EBP).

 

What are the Concurrent Issues?

National Biofuel Policy:

  • Because of grain surpluses and the abundant availability of technology, the new ethanol blending objective relies predominantly on food-based feedstocks.
  • The strategy differs from the 2018 National Policy on Biofuels, which emphasised grasses and algae; cellulosic material such as bagasse, agriculture and forestry residue; and rice, wheat, and corn straw.

 

Hunger Danger:

  • Food grains intended for the poor are sold to distilleries at prices lower than what states pay for their public distribution networks.
  • Competition between distilleries and the public distribution system for subsidised food grains may have negative repercussions for the rural poor, exposing them to an increased risk of starvation.
  • According to the World Hunger Index 2021, India is rated 101st out of 116 nations.

 

Cost:

  • Biofuel production necessitates the use of land, which affects the cost of biofuels as well as food crops.

 

Water consumption:

  • Massive amounts of water are necessary for adequate irrigation of biofuel crops as well as fuel production, which might strain local and regional water supplies.

 

Efficiency:

  • Fossil fuels generate more energy than certain biofuels. For example, 1 gallon of ethanol provides less energy than 1 gallon of gasoline (a fossil fuel).

 

The Way Forward

Waste to Ethanol:

  • If India decides to emphasis on ethanol created from trash, it has a tremendous chance to become a global leader in sustainable biofuels policy.
  • This would provide significant climate and air quality advantages, as these wastes are now frequently burnt, adding to smog.

 

Water Scarcity:

  • The new ethanol strategy should prevent farmers from shifting to water-intensive crops, causing a water catastrophe in a country where scarcity is already acute.
  • Rice, sugarcane, and wheat require around 80% of India's irrigation water.

 

Crop production should be prioritised:

  • With dwindling groundwater supplies, limited arable land, variable monsoons, and declining crop yields owing to climate change, food production must take precedence over fuel crops.

 

Another Mechanism:

  • To meet the primary aim of reducing emissions, alternative methods such as increased electric vehicle adoption, the construction of extra renewable generation capacity to allow zero-emissions recharging, and so on must be explored.