In the rapidly evolving world of the automotive industry, a profound transition is underway, which is steering the trajectory toward greener and cleaner powertrain technology solutions. India is not immune from this trend. Over the last few years, the Indian government has been increasingly focusing on cleaner fuel solutions. While the electric propulsion system spearheading that transformation, CNG, petrol-hybrid, and biofuel are finding growing importance. India’s Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari has reiterated the government’s stance about being open towards adopting multiple cleaner fuel solutions and one of them is ethanol. The ethanol-blended petrol and related regulatory frameworks have been making headlines across India over the last couple of years as the country’s focus on cleaner fuel is increasing gradually.
In the recent past, India has witnessed the launch of the world’s first-ever electrified flex-fuel car, in the form of a Toyota Innova Hycross, which gets a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine paired with an electric motor. The engine is claimed capable of running on up to 85 per cent ethanol blended petrol. While this certainly opened a new ground of innovation for cleaner transportation fuel in India, the government’s strategic E20 fuel strategy aims at a 20 per cent ethanol blend in petrol across the country by 2025 up from the current 10 per cent ethanol blended petrol. India aims to lower its vehicular emissions as well as reduce reliance on crude oil imports, eventually bolstering the country’s economic independence through this strategy.
Ethanol is a renewable vehicular fuel originating from the fermentation process of sugarcane, and it can be used as a clean combustible fuel. Combustion of ethanol results in fewer pollutants emitted through tailpipe into the environment compared to petrol and diesel.
Ethanol blending is blended motor fuel containing ethyl alcohol, which is at least 99 per cent pure and derived from agricultural products and blended exclusively with petrol. An ethanol-blended petrol helps on two counts. One, blending the ethanol into petrol means the pollutant properties emitting through the tailpipe while the blended fuel is burnt is lower than non-blended petrol. Second, this helps in bringing down the country’s crude oil import saving money, considering the fact that 85 per cent of India’s total fuel demand is met through crude oil imports from overseas countries.
Amid all these evolution, the question remains, is ethanol a viable alternative to battery electric propelled and conventional fossil fuel-powered internal combustion engine cars? Ethanol could become a viable alternative in India to electric cars. However, the success of ethanol as a greener and cleaner alternative to unblended petrol or diesel, as a cheaper alternative to electric vehicles will take time, as this fuel technology is yet to reach the desired production scale and optimum use. In the situation where Indian consumers are traditionally price-sensitive, and electric cars come at a significantly higher premium over their ICE counterparts, ethanol-blended petrol can be a savior as it can reduce the tailpipe emissions from fossil-fuel-propelled cars.
