Wednesday
August 10
2022

Viewpoint: The E20 Challenge: The Road to Clean Mobility through Ethanol Blending

By Adhnan Nazir Wani

Achieving 10% ethanol blending in petrol (E10) five months ahead of its target marks a milestone for India’s bid for clean mobility through biofuels. It also reflects its rapid pace of ethanol production, having grown from 38 crore litres in FY 2013–14 to 867 crore litres in FY 2022–23. This, in turn, has helped reduce up to 27 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of vehicular greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the last 8 years. The country is now gearing up for the E20 challenge thrown open by the leadership’s commitment to achieving a 20% blend in petrol by FY2025–26. Reaching this goal would need up to 1,700 crore litres of annual ethanol production. However, the biomass pathway deployed to meet these targets needs to be looked at through a critical lens.

Photo courtesy of Christophe Maertens.

Source: Ola Mobility Institute (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Energy, Environment, Transportation
Tags
transportation