Ethanol blending with petrol at record 18.2% in December

With ethanol blending with gasoline reaching a record-breaking 18.2 percent in December, 2024 came to a successful close for the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG). Last month, the blending operation used almost 76.6 crore liters of ethanol. Between November and December of 2024, 140.8 crore liters of blending were produced. In December and November-December 2024, state-run Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) purchased 84.6 crore and 109.1 crore liters of ethanol, respectively.

In December 2024, ethanol blending in gasoline was 18.2%, and the total ethanol blending from November 2024 to December 2024 was 16.4%. The December ethanol blending % was the highest to far, according to MoPNG. Through the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) program, the Ministry has been encouraging the blending of ethanol into gasoline. The goal of the National Policy on Biofuels is to reach the 20% blending objective in the Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2025–2026.

With an estimated 1,683 crore liters of ethanol production capacity, India will have more than enough to meet the 20% blending requirement through October 2026. About 990 crore liters of ethanol will be needed in order to reach a 20% ethanol to gasoline blend in the ESY 2024–2025. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that between 2017 and 2021, India’s demand for ethanol tripled. Blending was 2% in 2017, but it increased to 8% by the summer of 2021. In June 2022, public sector OMCs met the goal of 10% ethanol blending in gasoline, five months ahead of schedule for ESY 2021–2022. The percentage of ethanol blended rose to 12.06 percent in ESY 2022–2023 and around 14.6 percent during ESY 2023-24.

As of September 2024, the EBP program had assisted in paying farmers around 92,409 crore during the previous ten years. The EBP initiative also produced net CO2 reductions of over 557 lakh tonnes, crude oil substitutions of 185 lakh tonnes, and foreign exchange savings of over Rs 1,08,655 crore within the same time period. It is projected that 20% ethanol blending in gasoline will likely result in farmers receiving more than Rs 35,000 crore a year.

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