India to meet 20% ethanol blending target before deadline

India is set to achieve its 20% ethanol blending target well before the revised deadline of October 2025, Hardeep Singh Puri, minister for petroleum & natural gas, says. The original deadline set by the government for 20% blending of ethanol with petrol was 2030 after it surpassed its previous target of 10% blending five months ahead of schedule. Speaking at the 12th CII Bioenergy Summit 2024 in New Delhi on October 14, Puri says crude oil substitution through blending has also been increasing farmer income over a period of time.

Earlier, addressing the same event, Sanjeev Chopra, secretary, the department of food and public distribution, ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution says India is ‘technically’ ready to achieve the 20% ethanol blending target.

“In case we are aiming for 20% ethanol blending next year, the estimate is that we need about 1,700 crore litres of capacity. We already have achieved 1650 crore litres of capacity. So from the supply side, 20% blending seems evidently feasible,” Chopra says.

According to Chopra, as of September 30, 2024, India has done about 585 crore litres of blending. Out of the 585 crore litres blending, about 330 crore litres has come from grain within which about 230 crore litres has come from maize. Stressing the importance of diversification of feedstock, he says the use of maize as feedstock was something the government has been stressing of late. “In August, the Prime Minister launched about 109 new varieties of seeds out of which six were maize. These six varieties have shown to yield nine tonnes per hectare as against India’s current average yield of about 3 tonnes per hectare of maize,” he says.

He says the replacement of conventional seeds with such high-yielding seeds can help increase maize production in the country in a big way. “In case we are able to have some 10-20% replacement of maize seeds in the next two years that itself will give a big leg up to ethanol production in the country,” he says.

Chopra says that more states are becoming self-sufficient in ethanol with UP, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh becoming ethanol-surplus states already. Supply chain optimisation, leveraging the PM Gatishakti, is the need of the hour, he says.