The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Rameswar Teli in a written reply in Lok Sabha informed that the Government is implementing the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme and Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation to promote Bio-Fuels with the broader objectives of promoting the domestic agriculture sector, ensuring environmental sustainability, reducing import dependency, and saving foreign exchange.
Currently, India targeting 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% blending of biodiesel in a diesel by 2030. For the ongoing Ethanol Supply Year (ESY 2021-22), Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have already achieved 10.16% blending as on 10th July 2022.
Back in 2018, the government launched the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative with a view to promoting the use of Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) as automotive fuel under which OMCs have been inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential entrepreneurs to produce CBG.
Till February 28, 2022, Oil PSUs have released Letter of Intent (LoIs) for the establishment of 3160 CBG plants for procurement of CBG.
Used Cooking Oil (UCO) has been identified as a potential raw material for biodiesel production and public sector OMCs have floated EoIs for procurement of Biodiesel produced from UCO across 300 locations. OMCs have received offers for setting up 61 plants with a production capacity of approximately 360 million litres per annum for manufacturing Biodiesel from UCO.
Minister states, In March 2019, Government notified the “Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan - Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran) Yojana” for providing financial support to integrated bio-ethanol projects for setting up Second Generation (2G) ethanol projects in the country using lignocellulosic biomass and other renewable feedstock. The total financial outlay for the scheme is Rs. 19.6950 billion for the period 2018-19 to 2023-24. Under the PM JI-VAN Yojana, the maximum financial assistance of Rs. 1.50 billion per project for commercial projects and Rs. 150 million per project for demonstration projects has been prescribed.
Under the EBP program, the Government has already achieved the intermediate target of 10% average blending in the country in June 2022 ahead of the target date of November 2022.
