The Government recently announced an ambitious plan to roll out vehicles running on 20% ethanol blended petrol by 2025. This is against the current level of blending of about 10%.
We can learn a lot from Brazil - the flag bearer for the global ethanol economy - while embarking on this acceleration,
Brazil turned to its traditional sugarcane to revolutionise its fuel economy and to decrease the high dependency on oil imports. The quest for a higher productivity and sugar-ethanol balance led Brazil to revolutionise its biomass production for ethanol and develop a new variety of sugarcane, popularly known as ‘energy cane’. Thanks to such emphasis and innovations, the country successfully integrated biofuels into its fuel economy without compromising food security.
Close to 80% of Brazilian automobiles today run on a 27% of ethanol blend. The country has a blending of close to 30% - it is currently 27% ethanol with gasoline. What Indian policy makers would love is this: through such blending - in 2019 alone Brazil had a savings of $13 billion in reduced oil imports.
Pretty impressive stats, something that India would like to emulate as early as possible.
