The central government has proposed to advance the deadline for blending 20 percent ethanol in petrol from the earlier announced 2030 to 2024. The use of 20 percent doped petrol or E20 fuel decreases the carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons emissions significantly, compared to normal gasoline in two-wheelers and four-wheelers. The increased blending will also reduce the use of polluting fossil fuel in the country.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has already notified the use of E20 and issued mass emission standards for the same.
The next two years would also give sugar mills time to convert excess sugarcane or sugar for producing a higher quantity of ethanol required for blending with petrol.
The government had earlier fixed a target of 10 percent ethanol blending by 2022 and 20 percent by 2030. But the plan now is to directly migrate to 20 percent as the level of blending is successively being used in a few countries such as Brazil.
This is akin to taking the emission standards vehicles directly from the BS-IV stage to BS-VI skipping one stage to ensure that vehicles turn less polluting sources.
Apart from facilitating the adoption of green fuel, E20 blending would also cut down India’s crude oil import bill which stands at a whopping Rs 8 lakh crore. This is also expected to boost the ethanol economy.
The use of 20 percent ethanol-blended petrol will also test the ability of vehicles to use this biofuel.