Soon, rotten potatoes, wheat to make ethanol

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 16

India will soon start making ethanol from surplus and degraded food material such as rotten potato, rotten wheat, broken rice and other biomass to achieve the milestone of 10 per cent ethanol blending with petrol by 2022.

Responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said MSP was not the only way to double farmers’ income and the government believes value addition to their basic income will be an effective step.

He was responding to a query raised by Kanumuru Raghurama Krishnaraju of the YSR Congress, who wondered how the government would keep up with its proposal of 10 per cent blending by 2022, when in 2018 all ethanol imports were banned.

“With the growing demand for industrial and human consumption and reduction in sugarcane-ethanol production in the country, how are we going to achieve the target of 10 per cent by 2022? Are there any alternative measures?” he said.

Pradhan replied, “While some believe only with MSP farmers’ income can increase, the government believes value addition to their basic incomes will be an effective step. The ethanol procurement has increased to six per cent.” “Whether sugarcane or some other material, slowly the government will make enough ethanol using rotten potatoes, rotten wheat, broken rice, biomass,” the minister said.

COMBINING COMBUSTIBLE

7.2% ethanol blending with petrol expected this season (Dec 2018 - Nov 2019)

4.22% average all-India ethanol blending achieved in 2017-18

Why blending important

A steady rise in ethanol blending will help save import of crude oil and foreign currency reserves. It encourages the use of additional cane juice and other raw materials to protect environment from the burning of fossil fuels. 

Fuel pump plan gets sugar mills’ backing

Mumbai: The Maharashtra co-operative sugar industry has backed Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's proposal asking mills to set up ethanol fuel pumps on their premises. The co-operatives reeling under unsold sugar stocks are mulling switching over to large-scale production of ethanol provided there was policy support. "Sugar mills which are producing ethanol can sell it directly to customers, if there is demand," an official from the sugar factories federation said. However without enough ethanol pumps, there wouldn't be enough takers for vehicles running on this fuel, it is felt. The state government is likely to give a push to ethanol production by allowing funding to mills by the co-operative bank, sources said. TNS