India’s 2018 biofuel policy was aimed at achieving 20% ethanol blended petrol by 2030.  However, in June 2021, the government preponed this target to 2025, also pushing for ethanol production from surplus sugar. Experts term it a highly strategic move to address both sugar farmers concern as well as accelerate the ethanol blended petrol program. 

 Recently top experts shared their insights on the Indian biofuel scenario at the NextGen Chemicals & Petrochemicals Summit 2022 organized by the Indian Chemical News on July 21-22, 2022. The session, ‘Ethanol/Biofuel: Energy ofFuture’ was moderated by Pravin Prashant, Editor, Indian Chemical News.

 “India has achieved the target of 10% ethanol blending five months ahead of time and it has saved the forex and GHS emissions. As per the data from European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), in the current year we are talking about 819 crore litre and by 2024-25 we will reach 1,430 crore litre of ethanol blending. This all is happening because we have an aggressive policy and ethanol capacity addition besides the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Program which is a real booster for the biofuel program. India is the third largest economy and third largest consumer of primary energy in the world after the US and China and it can be well understood how important energy security is. It will remain vulnerable until we have the alternate fuels and we have developed the technologies for renewable applications. This program is strategic and vital for the nation,” said Dr Sangeeta Srivastava, Executive Director, Godavari Biorefineries.

 “We have achieved 10% and that gives us confidence that 20% is achievable. However, many diversions in between make us feel that even sugar advantage will go away. All the distilleries that are producing ethanol need to have CO2 capture. It is a big challenge to work out methods to do so. We need to be careful about the denaturing of raw material as it moves between various cities. There should be a process of testing it. Our focus should also be on developing 2G ethanol. Another challenge is that while the time required for regulatory approvals has been reduced, there is a long way to go,” added Srivastava.

 “Biofuels is a sunrise sector and the need of the hour and currently, we have a win-win situation for all stakeholders. From the sugar industry standpoint, I would like to mention that the sugar sector will continue to be a backbone of this program. On the government side, we must compliment it for putting in place all the building blocks in terms of policy framework. Except for some fine tuning at a few places, the policies have been good. Sugarcane sector will certainly play a vital role in accelerating the ethanol blending program,” said Roshan Lal Tamak, Executive Director & CEO-Sugar Business, DCM Shriram.

“The challenge is of feed stock as pricing framework has been put in place. India has produced about 40 million tonnes of sugar this year and out of that 3.5 million tonnes of sugar have been diverted to ethanol. In the coming season, 5 million tonnes will be diverted to ethanol but even then we are left with 7-8 million tonnes surplus. From an overall perspective, ethanol is the preferred route and juice to ethanol is a very quick solution and we are in a position to divert more sugar. We will see the result in the coming days. The challenges include the regional variations in sugarcane and sugar prices. Sue to market conditions. Pricing of juice to ethanol conversion must be done under a proper policy, making it viable for sugar mill owners. Other challenges are transportation and storage augmentation which the government is addressing now. Things are moving in the right direction,” added Tamak.

“The government policy on ethanol is based on 4-5 pillars. First of all, it benefits the farmers directly from ethanol blending as their rice husk, rice grains, maize, and corn gets a market. Second is supporting the domestic sugar industry by diverting the surplus sugar into ethanol blending. It reduces the environmental pollution as the extra oxygen in ethanol helps in controlling the vehicular emissions. Fourth is reduction of oil import bill thus increasing self-dependence on energy and generating more employment in the country.  One of the good things is that the government, while fixing the price of ethanol linked it to the crude oil prices but the raw materials such as sugar, rice husk and maize. This policy is giving stability and vision to the industry,” said Abinash Verma, Promoter, Eastern India Biofuels.

“As per the government, all the new two wheeler and three wheeler vehicles will have to be E-20 compliant starting April 2023. However, replacing E-10 completely won’t be possible by 2026 as these will be 75% of total vehicles as compared to 25% E-20 ones. Thus able to fulfil the 20% blending target as not more than 25% vehicles won’t be able to take it. Therefore, India needs to introduce flex fuel vehicles. Government must look at the costing part of BS-6, Incentives must be given to flex fuel vehicles. Reduction of GST can encourage the manufacturers. The hybrid vehicles with ethanol and battery combination could work well as these are least polluting in the world even as compared to EV,” Verma added further.

“India and Brazil have developed great collaboration on biofuels. In the 70s when we got the enormous fuel prices, Brazil set the policy for biofuels that has got a big value chain that begins from the fuel but goes on to generate huge employment. If Brazil today has a thriving automobile industry, it is because of ethanol. Biofuel has the enormous potential to improve the technology as it is not only limited to fuel but generating electricity and fuel as well. India has a great role here due to the technology and strong automobile industry.  I would call the challenges we face as opportunities. There should be a price difference between pumps with 10% and pumps with 20%. Ethanol cars were cheaper in Brazil and slowly all the automobile manufacturers. It has been amazing to see the transition from zero to six billion litres and soon to 9 billion litre by 2025 in less than 10 years,” said Prof Goncolo Pereira, Full Professor 7 Coordinator, Genomics & Bioenergy Laboratory, UNICAMP. 

“Earlier there would be skeptical arguments whether the conversion can happen but I don’t see any issues in achieving the 20% blending target. To address the challenges, a few components should be changed to address the combustion issues. I feel the German player; Bosch could help the Indian industry in this transformation as they have a deep experience. In Brazil, we have real flex vehicles with zero to 100% conversion and drivers can’t see any difference. We are doing research and have concluded that hybrid cars are the best solution with utilization of biogas and ethanol. India too has to innovate technology and go for flex fuel and hybrid cars,” added Prof Pereira.

Oil companies are geared up and the very fact that we have gone up to 10% from just 2% shows the preparedness to go up to 20%. In India ethanol was produced only in the state of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka through sugar molasses route and the challenge was to make ethanol available across the country. Petrol is sold in the nook and corner of the country and therefore the oil companies have made arrangements to procure this ethanol and move it across the different parts of the country. As regards to achieving 10%, it was not so difficult as the challenge of going up to 20% now. The challenge is twofold, one on demand side and other is supply side. The supply side challenges I am pretty sure will be addressed with the kind of capacity of 300 to 400 crore litres by 2025, said Milind S. Patke, President-Biofuels, GPS Renewables.

“There will be scenarios where existing vehicles can take up to 13% and new vehicles will be 20%. By 2030, we will reach up to 30%. In terms of product movement, oil companies have improved internal storage to address the minor fluctuations. Even the ethanol manufacturers are improving their storage facilities. Also there are huge pipeline networks across the country and once the ethanol blending moves up, we will have overcome a lot of these challenges,” added Patke.

The NextGen Chemicals & Petrochemicals Summit 2022 was supported by the leading names of the industry. The platinum partner was Elliot Group. Regulatory Knowledge Partner was GPC. Gold partners of the event included Ingenero, Premier Tech, Carbanio and Deepak Nitrite. Among the associate partners were PIP and Huntsman. The industry partners of the event included AMAI, Croplife India, and ACFI.