NEW DELHI: The government on Monday hinted that the ethanol blending content in petrol can be increased to 21% from the current 20%, taking into account the tolerance level of vehicles.Replying to a question on whether discussions on increasing ethanol blending have begun in light of the ongoing conflict in West Asia, Additional Secretary for Heavy Industries Hanif Qureshi said: “The government is committed to using biofuels wherever possible and E20 has already started. BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) also says that a mix of +/- 1% can exist. So, about 21%… can reach this level. “The Indian government insists that the ethanol-blended petrol (EBP) scheme will help India save about 4.5 billion barrels of crude oil every year and has so far saved about 1.65 billion rupees in foreign exchange.People involved in the EBP and analyzing its impact said that while the slight increase in mixing would not be a problem for E20-compliant vehicles built after April 2023, it could be an issue for vehicles built before 2023. “Increased mixing will be more effective when our vehicle engines are designed accordingly,” one of the people said.Last week, Food Minister Sanjeev Chopra, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of sugar industry lobby group ISMA, said the industry had been demanding higher blending and there was excess capacity in ethanol manufacturing. “We may get some news before the next ethanol supply year (which starts in November),” he said.The government has set up a group of senior officials from ministries including petroleum, food, heavy industry and road transport to come up with a roadmap for increasing ethanol blending.On Monday, Qureshi also pointed to the FFV’s ability to use gasoline blended with ethanol of up to 85% as another way to reduce dependence on crude oil imports. “The industry has already introduced flex-fuel compliant models. The engines can run on this fuel blend without any loss in performance. As a result, we are seeing the development of four-wheelers and two-wheelers that can run on flex-fuel. We believe the use of flex-fuel will also grow. This will also ease the pressure on crude oil imports,” he said.
