To ensure enough supply of ethanol for making E-20 fuel by 2023, the Centre on Tuesday said it is encouraging ethanol production from grains as well and has allocated 78,000 tonnes of rice from the state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) at a subsidised rate of `20/kg to distilleries for the current marketing year ending November.
The Government said it has also approved 189 proposals for setting up of grain-based new/expansion of distilleries (with a total capacity of 765 crore litres) that will come up in the next three years under a government’s interest subvention scheme notified on January 14, this year, it said.
A big push is being given for doubling ethanol distillation capacities by 2025 as the Government is targeting 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol by then from the current 8.5 per cent likely to be achieved in the 2020-21 marketing year (December-November).
A pilot project of (bioethanol) E-100 dispensing from three locations at Pune has been launched recently. Addressing the media on progress made in ethanol blending with petrol (EBP) programme, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said the Government is encouraging ethanol production not only from molasses but also from grains like maize and rice to achieve the blending targets.
