India Has Achieved The Target Of 10% Ethanol Blending In Petrol:
India has achieved the target of 10% ethanol blending in petrol, five months ahead of schedule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
- This, he claimed, had led to a reduction of 27 lakh tonnes of carbon emissions and saved foreign exchange worth ₹41,000 crore. Farmers earned ₹40,600 crore in the past eight years due to increase in ethanol blending, Mr. Modi said.
- Last June, Mr. Modi made public the “Road map for ethanol blending in India, 2020-25”, which laid out a pathway for achieving 20% ethanol blending by 2025-26.
- The 10% blending target was to be achieved in November 2022.
Ethanol Blending Programme:
- Ethanol is an agro-based product, mainly produced from a by-product of the sugar industry, namely molasses.
Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme was launched in January, 2003. - The programme sought to promote the use of alternative and environment-friendly fuels and to reduce import dependency for energy requirements.
- Use of ethanol-blended petrol decreases emissions such as carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), and nitrogen oxides (NOx), the expert committee noted.
- Higher reductions in CO emissions were observed with E20 fuel — 50 per cent lower in two-wheelers and 30 percent lower in four-wheelers.
