Research on blending 15% ethanol in diesel in advanced stages: Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi, October 14

Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said on Monday that the research on blending 15 per cent ethanol with diesel is in advanced stages.

At present, the government is aiming to mix 15 per cent ethanol with petrol in the ethanol supply year 2023-24, which commenced in November last year and concludes in October 2024.

The government is exploring avenues on how to prioritise ethanol blending with diesel based on sound evidence, Gadkari said in his address at the 12^th CII Bioenergy Summit.

The progress on building an ethanol ecosystem, where ethanol pumps can complement production and launch of vehicles that run on ethanol, are on fast-track in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, Gadkari added.

“Indian Oil (Corporation) has decided to put 400 ethanol pump stations. We are holding a meeting with stakeholders on this soon. We are meeting automakers as well including Suzuki, Tata and Toyota. These auto makers have decided to launch flex-engine cars. Other vehicle-makers like TVS, Bajaj, Honda are ready with ethanol bikes and are waiting for the pumps to come to launch their bikes,” the Minister said.

The Minister informed that he is focusing on encouraging higher ethanol production in the four States where pumps have been announced.

On CNG, “Over 475 projects are in pipeline in CNG, and over 40 projects have already started across Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, Karnataka among others. Most of them have found viability due to use of rice-straw. The conversion ratio of rice-straw to CNG at present is somewhere around 5:1 (in tonnes), the minister said.

“We need to study deeper which of the biomass can give us CNG more efficiently. We also need to explore further technologies of conversion of municipal solid waste into bio-CNG, where the cost of raw-material becomes zero. A pilot project is underway in this area as well.”