Government working towards more liberal regime to foster sale, production of ethanol: VK Singh

The government is working towards a more liberal regime to promote the production and sale of ethanol, said VK Singh, Minister of State (MoS), Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Civil Aviation.

While speaking at the Fuels of Future 2.0, a conference organised by Assocham, Singh stated that today there is greater awareness of the need for alternative fuels to replace fossil fuels. 

"There are various alternative fuels available and we are working towards a more liberal regime so that the production and sale of alternate fuels is made easier," he added. 

"We have also made a big push towards electric mobility where li-ion has been at the forefront but there is a great amount of research on sodium-ion and finding alternatives to li-ion so that we can become more independent of the lithium cycle altogether," he further noted. 

Singh mentioned that there is also a push on sustainable aviation fuel and we have conducted a trial of sustainable aviation fuels powered flight. The greatest challenge before us today is what alternative fuel we adopt and how we can bring about a change in mindset towards alternative fuels.

Aswani Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Sugar), Department of Food and Public Distribution in his address said, “The government has limited the diversion of sugar to ethanol produced from sugarcane juice and B-Hy molasses given the estimated drop in the production of sugar in the country."

He stated that the department is committed to the target of 20 percent ethanol blending by 2025 for which around 1016 crore litres of ethanol for blending and 334 crore litres for other industrial use will be required. 

"Considering plants run at 80 per cent of their installed capacity about 1700 crore litres capacity should be in place by 2025. Today our capacity stands at 890 crore litres through molasses and about 510 crore litres from grain-based feedstock. Additional capacity of 300 crore litres needs to be added," he mentioned.