Strong policies and incentives will help enhance ethanol utilisation better, C V Raman, Chief Technical Officer, Maruti Suzuki India, has said.
Participating in the first edition of Dialogues on Multi-fuel Mobility for India - exploring and expanding on the feasibility of options like methanol, ethanol, hydrogen, biofuels etc., organised by the Centre for Auto Policy & Research (CAPR), along with Mobility Outlook, Raman said, material compatibility is key to make ethanol suitable for the vehicles. He said it is necessary to develop a new engine management system and hardware; therefore, extensive and expensive efforts and time are required for the systems suppliers and OEMs.
Speaking on the occasion, Niranjan Raje, Former Director R&D, IOCL, & Member- CAPR, said the oil marketing companies must be prepared to make available 20% of ethanol by 2025 as the demand for ethanol by then will be 12 billion litres while the same for petrol will be 63 billion litres. Quoting NITI Aayog’s projections, he said the sale of petrol will be about 50 billion litres, and the corresponding ethanol requirements will be 10 billion litres.
Jai Uppal, Former Director-General, Indian Federation of Green Energy and Member -CAPR, said, about INR 35,000 crore of investment is required to have ethanol-blended petrol in the next four years. Of the 10 billion litres of ethanol required, about 40% will come from grains and the rest from sugar-based inputs.
On the challenges for the industry in meeting the targets proposed by the government for having 20% ethanol blending by 2025, Raman said, it is essential to consider the existing vehicle parc (BS-II and BS-III) as the vehicles were manufactured to be suitable for E10 only from 2008. Moreover, tuning vehicles for E0 up to E10 is a challenge, he said, adding that the driveability issues are likely in two-wheelers with up to 100cc capacity if E20 alone is available. Therefore, parallel dispensing of E10 will be required for the following eight to ten years to facilitate the end customers, he said.
On the support the industry needs, Raje said that due to E20, the loss in excise duty for the government will amount to about INR 10,000 crore. But, on the other hand, the government has to give the players some incentives and give price concessions for the ethanol-blended fuel. Therefore, there has to be proper due diligence done to determine the price of the blended fuel, he said.
Setting up multiple dispensing stations, labelling and pricing of fuels will be a challenge. Lower prices of ethanol-blended fuel will attract customers, especially from the two-wheeler segment. Dispensing various blended fuels across the country will be a humongous task for oil marketing companies as it needs investments, space, logistical support and blending infrastructure. Anhydrous ethanol is essential to safeguard the vehicles and end-users, which inflates the prices, Raje opined.
Speaking on the future course of action, Raman said a roadmap is set in place for ethanol blending; however, more clarity will help as it can also educate the end-users besides helping those developing multi-fuel compatible powertrains Raman said.
Uppal said the government has to be steadfast in its objectives of energy security. The US and Brazil have shown that the ethanol blending programme can contribute in many ways, including emission reduction and increasing farmers’ income.
Raje said it is necessary to keep the customers in focus. While the OEMs make compatible vehicles, the users should not suffer since there will be a loss in fuel economy with E20. Ethanol will be a part of a gambit of alternate fuels, and it cannot be a standalone fuel option. He suggested looking at other fuel options also such as hydrogen, electrification, bio-CNG etc.