Ethanol from sugarcane can provide energy security

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

• Discount UK Shopping

Related Articles

Benga project in Mozambique to yield premium coal ...Indian projects win 'Green Oscars'

: Ethanol is a versatile and useful product. It is produced from renewable resources such as sugarcane, corn etc, and has been used in India as a feedstock for the production of chemicals and in the manufacture of potable liquor. Rising oil prices have made energy security even more important for India, since the country imports a major chunk of the 8.6 million tonne of its petrol requirements.

This despite the fact that India can substitute a sizeable portion of its oil needs through ethanol. Brazil uses car engines that can use hydrous ethanol, anhydrous ethanol, petrol and their combinations by means of a simple sensor that adjusts the excess air fed to the carburettor based on the CH ratio of the fuel. India could also introduce these engines, and over time, technically adapt to ethanol as a fuel. Ethanol is also a feedstock for chemicals. Surplus ethanol availability would further encourage the production of chemicals from renewable resources.

India is the largest sugar consumer in the world today. Indian sugarcane is currently used to produce sugar for our domestic consumption as well as for exporting to other countries (whenever the government policy permits it and the prices are favourable) and its byproduct (molasses) is used for fermentation to produce ethanol. The ethanol is used to meet the demand of the potable and chemical industries in the country.

India is producing more sugar than it needs, by more than 8 million tonne, and most of this is stored in warehouses. This could otherwise have been made available for a programme in fuel ethanol to take place.

Current scenario: surplus of sugarcane or sugar?

India is producing too much sugar as compared to its demand. The resultant oversupply is creating a downward pressure on the market price of sugar, affecting the economics of the sugar industry and consequently the livelihood of millions of sugarcane farmers that the industry supports.

Sugarcane surplus is welcome: Sugarcane surplus needs to be looked at as an ‘energy’ surplus. Surplus cane can be used to produce ethanol as is done in Brazil. Instead of storing millions of tonnes of sugar in a falling market and exporting the balance at very low international prices, the same could instead be used to produce a few billion litres of ethanol. In terms of energy value, this would be equal to a little over 3 million tonne of petrol (over 30% of our current petrol consumption).