Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Indian Oil Corporation’s Rs 900-crore ethanol plant on August 10. The plant, located near the state-run firm’s Panipat refinery, will use about 0.2 million tonne of rice straw annually to generate around 30 million litres ethanol a year.
“The dedication of the plant is part of a long series of steps taken by the government over the years to boost the production and usage of biofuels in the country,” the government said in a statement. Incidentally, August 10 is observed as the World Biofuel day.
The second generation (2G) plant will provide extra income to farmers and solve, to a great extent, environment problems related to burning of rice straw in fields. IOC achieved 9.18% of ethanol blending with petrol during the last ethanol sugar year (November 2020 – October 2021). This was just 6.87% in the previous year.
India’s National Biofuel Policy, 2018, had envisaged 20% ethanol blending in petrol target by 2030; but the government has advanced the target to 2025-26. For the ongoing ethanol supply year, oil marketing companies (OMCs) have achieved 10.16% blending as on July 24. Ethanol blending in petrol was just 5% in 2018-19.
IOC is expanding its refining capacity from 70million tonne per annum (MTPA) to 88 MTPA by 2025.