It is necessary to increase the price of ethanol to achieve the blending target.

22-Aug-2024 03:43 PM

New Delhi. By launching the Global Biofuel Alliance, India now needs to increase the target of ethanol production and its blending in petrol and therefore it will have to make some extra efforts. According to industry analysts,

if the purchase price of ethanol is increased to a profitable level, then the enthusiasm and attraction of distillers towards its production will increase.

The matter of increase in the price of ethanol produced from sugarcane is pending for a long time and the government should immediately end the control imposed on the use of sugarcane (sugar) for ethanol production.

The Managing Director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories says that countries like America and Brazil are producing ethanol on a large scale,

so India also needs to be more and more active in this direction. Although India is at the third position after America and Brazil in the production of ethanol, but there is a lot of distance in this.

It is noteworthy that on the occasion of the G20 smmit in September last year, India had launched the Global Biofuel Alliance and it included countries like Italy, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, Bangladesh,

Mauritius and United Arab Emirates (UAE). The objective of this alliance is to promote the production and use of biofuel.

But in the 2023-24 marketing season, the government limited its use in ethanol production to increase the supply and availability of sugar.

In 2022-23, about 40 lakh tonnes of sugar was used in ethanol production, which could reach only 17 lakh tonnes in 2023-24.