No plan to mandate blending of ethanol with diesel, says government

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday said the blending of ethanol with diesel is still at an experimental stage, and there is no plan, at present, to mandate it, as initial tests showed the formation of deposits in fuel tanks and other implications.

Replying to a supplementary question in the Rajya Sabha on whether the Centre plans to mandate the blending of ethanol with diesel, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said, “The issue of blending ethanol with diesel is still at an experimental stage, and I can say categorically that at present there is no plan to mandate”.

Elaborating further, the minister said the reason is that oil marketing companies have tested up to 7 per cent of ethanol in diesel in collaboration with the Automotive Research Association of India and select original equipment manufacturers.

“The initial tests have shown that there would be a reduction of flashpoint to 15 degrees Celsius with a 5 per cent ethanol blend and we require material compatibility. Equally, fuel stability and oxidation stability. There would be the formation of deposits in the fuel tank and there are series of other implications that follow,” Puri informed.

The minister also shared that the blending of ethanol with petrol has now reached a level of up to 20 per cent.

“We started in 2014 with 1.4 per cent of Ethanol blending in petrol. Today, we have reached a figure of 15 per cent. We are blending 400 crore litres of ethanol. Now, if we have to go down the diesel, and we are planning to take it up to 1,000 crore litres by the end of the ethanol blending year 2025,” Puri said.

However, the minister cautioned that “to do this, in the case of diesel, we have to be very careful that it does not raise vulnerability on safety, on compatibility with the equipment, etc”.

“I would, at this stage therefore, say that the way forward is conducting further tests, issue some stability of ED blend which (we) need to address and several other steps which we are presently undertaking,” he added.

The current ethanol production capacity of 1,364 crore litre is spread across most of the states of the country, including the ethanol surplus states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharastra and Karnataka.

This capacity is sufficient to produce the ethanol required to meet the blending targets.