20% ethanol blending by 2025-26- Oil minister

20% ethanol blending by 2025-26: Oil minister

Oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said that petrol mixed with 20% ethanol will be available by 2025, five years ahead of the earlier rollout target of 2030. Currently, 10% ethanol is blended in petrol.

“We have increased the ethanol blending in petrol from 1.53% in 2013-14 to 10.17% in July 2022. This translates into forex savings of Rs 41,500 crore, timely payment of over Rs 40,600 crore to farmers and reduction of 27 lakh tonne in CO2 emissions,” Puri said at a global conference on compressed biogas.

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The government has notified the National Policy on Biofuels, 2018 to increase usage of biofuels in the energy and transportation sectors of the country.

“Presently, we are importing around 50% of our requirement of natural gas. Speedy expansion of compressed biogas (CBG) will help in meeting our additional requirement from domestic resources,” Puri said, adding that the government has launched Sustainable Alternatives Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative to promote the use of upgraded biogas in the form of CBG as alternative green fuel.

The minister said that the country has an ambitious target to set up 5,000 commercial plants by 2024-25 and produce 15 MMT of CBG which would replace other gaseous fuels being used in the country.

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So far, 46 CBG plants have already been commissioned and sale of CBG has started from more than 100 retail outlets, he added.

To create the enabling ecosystem, Puri urged the entrepreneurs, equipment manufacturers, biomass aggregators, technology providers and other stakeholders to join hands for the development of CBG projects and assured them of full government support.