While the rest of the world is working hard to find answers to climate change, India is moving quicker to preserve energy and transition to alternate sources.
“India is a worldwide leader in climate change mitigation and is making rapid progress on its energy transformation strategy. Today’s event demonstrates how far India is prepared to go in order to uphold its promise to safeguard the environment while also meeting rising energy demand “Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep S. Puri stated.
Speaking about India’s ethanol blending progress, the minister stated, “We have increased ethanol blending in petrol from 1.53% in 2013-14 to 10.17% in 2022, which was well ahead of the November 2022 deadline, and have advanced its target to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol from 2030 to 2025-26.”
Puri stated that this has not only increased the country’s energy security, but has also resulted in forex savings of over Rs 41,500 crore, decreased GHG emissions by 27 lakh MT, and benefited farmers with prompt payment of over Rs 40,600 crore.
The minister also stated lowering the security deposit amount from 5% to 1%, offering a benefit of roughly Rs 400 crore to ethanol providers for ‘ease of doing business,’ as well as lowering the GST on bio-fuel from 18% to 5%.
According to the minister, the government is constructing five 2G ethanol bio-refineries in Haryana, Bathinda in Punjab, Bargarh in Odisha, Numaligarh in Assam, and Devangere in Karnataka.
“We are also creating a Global Alliance on biofuels with the United States and Brazil during India’s G20 presidency,” he said.
At the Auto Expo 2023, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and the US Grains Council inked a Memorandum of Understanding to boost increasing ethanol blending in India.
SIAM is the top industrial association for the Indian car industry, while the US Grains Council (USGC) is a non-profit organization located in the United States that is building worldwide export markets for ethanol.
The SIAM and USGC will work together to raise ethanol awareness, boost production capacity and efficiency, and promote for widespread use of ethanol. In the presence of Puri and Gloria Berbena, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission and Counsellor, US Embassy, New Delhi, the MoU was signed by Vinod Aggarwal, President, SIAM, and Josh Miller, Chairman, USGC.
Ethanol is a clean and renewable fuel that helps the environment, health, and economy. India had met its objective of delivering 10% ethanol-blended gasoline by June 2022, five months ahead of schedule, up from 0.67 percent blending in 2012.
The nation plans to increase the blend to 20% by 2025-26, which will need an estimated 2.68 billion gallons or 10.15 billion litres of ethanol.
According to USGC Chairman Miller, “We applaud the Indian government for exceeding the critical milestone of 10% ethanol blending ahead of schedule. We believe in partnership and are continually looking for ways to help India reach its next aim of 20% blending by 2025. India is the second-largest industrial ethanol importer from the United States. This MoU demonstrates the nations’ good bilateral relations, as well as our joint efforts and shared interests in this area.”