{"id":14720,"date":"2021-04-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/08-04-2021\/ethanol-blending-2\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T17:55:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:25:53","slug":"ethanol-blending-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/08-04-2021\/ethanol-blending-2","title":{"rendered":"Ethanol Blending"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ethanol blending in India has reached the first time more than <strong>7.2 per cent<\/strong> in the first <strong>four months <\/strong>of the ethanol supply year 2020-21 (December to November), putting the country on course to meet the target of <strong>10 per cent blending by 2022.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Points<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to industry sources, if <strong>oil-marketing companies (OMCs)<\/strong> <strong>lift the ethanol<\/strong> they had contracted for, in the next few months, all-India <strong>average blending<\/strong> could be even <strong>near 8 per cent <\/strong>by the time the <strong>season ends in November.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>So far, the best ever ethanol blend with petrol has been a<strong>round 5.2 per cent <\/strong>at the all-India level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In states such as <strong>Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana,<\/strong> <strong>Punjab, Delhi, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh <\/strong>(and Daman and Diu, a Union Territory), 9.5-10 percent ethanol is being blended with petrol.\n<ul>\n<li>This means these states are close to the <strong>2022 target.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201c<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/867858702874486700_image.png\" style=\"height:330px; margin-left:150px; margin-right:150px; width:295px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is ethanol?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is the organic <strong>compound Ethyl Alcohol<\/strong> which is produced from biomass.<\/li>\n<li>It is also an ingredient in alcoholic beverages. It has a higher octane number than gasoline, hence improves the petrol octane number. Ethanol has an insignificant amount of water in it.<\/li>\n<li>In India, ethanol is mainly produced from <strong>sugarcane molasses<\/strong> by the fermentation process. Ethanol can be <strong>mixed with the gasoline<\/strong> to form <strong>different blends.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Benefits of Ethanol Blending <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is cost-effective.<\/li>\n<li>Helps in reducing Global warming by lowering the emission of carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide.<\/li>\n<li>Minimizes dependence on fossil fuels<\/li>\n<li>Contributes to creation of employment in the country<\/li>\n<li>Import reduction of Fuel.<\/li>\n<li>Helps farmers in supplementing their incomes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Steps were taken by the government <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme: <\/strong>It aims at blending ethanol with petrol, thereby bringing it under the category of biofuels and saving millions of dollars by cutting fuel imports.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Under this program, the availability of ethanol will increase due to the higher price for C heavy molasses-based ethanol and enabling procurement of ethanol from B heavy molasses and sugarcane juice for the first time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>National Biofuel Policy 2018:<\/strong> It categorises biofuels as<strong> \u201cBasic Biofuels\u201d<\/strong> viz. First Generation (1G) ,Second Generation (2G) and Third Generation (3G) biofuels,\n<ul>\n<li>It expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing the use of sugarcane juice, sugar-containing materials like sugar beet, sweet sorghum etc unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.<\/li>\n<li>It allows the use of surplus food grains for production of ethanol for blending with petrol with the approval of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/155673589431239680_image.png\" style=\"height:339px; margin-left:40px; margin-right:40px; width:580px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Fig:<\/strong> <strong>Classification based on their raw materials<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>E20 Fuel: <\/strong>India notified the use of E20, a blend of 20 per cent ethanol and 80 per cent petrol, as fuel for compatible vehicles\n<ul>\n<li>The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways notified the use of E20 and issued mass emission standards for the same<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/article\/economy-policy\/at-7-2-india-blends-record-ethanol-with-petrol-in-first-4-months-121040500016_1.html#:~:text=Ethanol%20blending%20in%20India%20has,per%20cent%20blending%20by%202022.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source : BS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Ethanol blending in India has reached the first time more than 7.2 per cent in the first four months of the ethanol supply year 2020-21 (December to November), putting the country on course to meet the target of 10 per cent blending by 2022. Key Points According to industry sources, if oil-marketing companies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[60,26],"class_list":["post-14720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-environmental-pollution-degradation","tag-gs-3"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/677335Current-Affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49872,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14720\/revisions\/49872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}