30-11-2012, 04:03 PM
Ethanol Blending Program in India - One Step Forward and Two Backwards
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Developments on Cellulosic Ethanol
US and Europe have taken major lead in setting up demo plants, pilot plants, setting up R&D facilities and commercial plants of bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass Key feedstock used- corn cob, straws, agro residue, wood chips and wood waste, vegeatable waste, bagasse, switch grass etc At present US is offering a cellulosic biofuel subsidy of $ 1.01/ gallon going to expire in Dec 2012; in EU the double counting of non-food cellulosic biofuels in the renewable target and GHG criteria are the only policies As per Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) , US will require that 36 billion gal/year of renewable fuels be used by 2022 out of which 16 billion gal / year should come from cellulosic advanced technology There are more than 40 demo and pilot plants installed and 4-5 plants are operating at commercial level across world
Ethanol Blending Program (EBP) – 2002-2006
EBP initiated with the objective of energy security and GHG emission reduction
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) issued a notification in September 2002 for mandatory blending of 5 % ethanol in 9 major sugar producing states and four union territories from 2003
Report of the Committee on Development of Biofuels, under the auspices of the Planning Commission, recommended a phase-wise implementation program to blend Biofuels with petrol and diesel
However, due to better prices offered by competitive usages, supply of fuel Ethanol remained short. The ethanol-blending mandate was made optional in October 2004, but it resumed in twenty states in October 2006
Fuel Ethanol price was set at 14.50 per Ltr plus 75 paisa subsidy on the blended gasoline