Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
The portal will provide information on legislation, regulations, market trends, and the most recent advancements in the industry, acting as a complete platform for stakeholders in the sugar and ethanol industries. Image Source: IANS
Union minister Piyush Goyal launched a new Sugar-Ethanol portal on Wednesday, taking a big step towards encouraging renewable energy sources and lowering reliance on fossil fuels.
India has been taking sincere efforts to minimise its dependence on the fossil fuels and maximise the availability and usage of green energy. Union minister Piyush Goyal launched a new Sugar-Ethanol portal on Wednesday, taking a big step towards encouraging renewable energy sources and lowering reliance on fossil fuels. The portal, which was introduced at the "National Conference of Food Ministers of States/UTs," intends to increase sugarcane-derived ethanol production and consumption in India. The Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) organised the conference, which brought significant stakeholders together to talk about many elements of food grain procurement, distribution, and policy reforms.
In his remarks to the audience, Goyal emphasised the value of renewable energy and the necessity for India to make the transition to a cleaner and greener future. The department emphasised the need of procurement reforms throughout the meeting in ensuring food security and stable prices for essential supplies. Furthermore, a demonstration of the automated multi-commodity grain dispensing equipment called "Annapurti" built by the UN World Food Programme (UN-WFP) as well as automatic grain analyzers was carried out, highlighting technological breakthroughs in the procurement and quality checking procedures.
The portal will provide information on legislation, regulations, market trends, and the most recent advancements in the industry, acting as a complete platform for stakeholders in the sugar and ethanol industries. It will make it simpler to acquire pertinent information and encourage collaboration between industry players, policymakers, and researchers.
The relevance of nutritional security was emphasised as the conference also concentrated on methods to promote the purchase of coarse grains. It is projected that a total of 26.14 Lakh Metric Tons (LMT) of coarse grains would be procured in Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2023-2024, while the expected distribution would be 22.31 LMT.
The Union Government has laid a major emphasis on the production of ethanol in the country and also blending it with petrol. The government has taken various steps in providing a boost to the ethanol production and ethanol production capacity in the country. A “Roadmap for Ethanol Blending in India 2020-25” was released by the PM in June 2021 which laid out a detailed pathway for achieving 20 percent ethanol blending. Due to the coordinated efforts of the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and the increase in diversion of sugar for ethanol production, the target of 10 percent blending under the programme had been achieved much ahead (August 2022) of the targeted deadline of November 2022 wherein the Public Sector OMCs have attained an average 10 percent ethanol blending in petrol across the country.
Also, recently in the month of February, 20 percent ethanol-blended petrol was made available at a few select petrol pumps in 11 states and the union territories as part of a campaign to increase the use of biofuels to reduce emissions and reliance on foreign exchange depleting imports. The 20 percent ethanol-blended petrol was launched by PM Narendra Modi two months ahead of the planned rollout in April at the India Energy Week in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The chart below shows the ethanol production capacity in the country.
The ethanol production capacity in India has increased from 423 crore litres in 2019-20 to 947 crore litres in 2022-23. This means that the ethanol production capacity has doubled in just three years. The Central Government has taken various steps to increase production and utilization of ethanol. The Government has amended the Industries (Development & Regulation) Act to ensure free movement of ethanol in the country. The Government has also reduced Goods & Service Tax (GST) on ethanol meant for Ethanol Blended with Petrol (EBP) Programme from 18 percent to 5 percent since 2018.
Under the ethanol blending programme, an indicative target of 20 percent blending of ethanol in petrol by 2030 was laid out. Subsequently, the target year for achieving 20 percent ethanol blending in petrol was also advanced to 2025. By blending 20 percent ethanol, the nation could experience significant benefits, including energy security, reduced carbon emissions, improved air quality, self-reliance, the use of damaged food grains, an increase in farmer incomes, the creation of jobs, and more investment opportunities. Also, the central government is urging sugar mills to divert extra sugarcane to ethanol in order to find a long-term solution to the issue of excess sugar. About 45–50 LMT of extra sugar in the current sugar season (2022–2023) is intended to be converted to ethanol. According to Sudhanshu Pandey, secretary, department of food and public distribution, these activities are leading to transforming the Indian farming community from ‘Anna Daata’ to ‘Urja Daata.’
Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have paid sugar mills nearly Rs 81,796 crore under the EBP in the last seven years for ethanol deliveries, which has assisted mills in paying farmers' dues. In addition, the choice is made to purchase damaged and surplus food grains for ethanol production, ensuring price value for surplus grain stock as well as accommodating the fresh season crop to meet EBP target.
Ethanol is environment friendly as one crore litre of ethanol blended petrol can save around 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide emission. Greenhouse gas emissions due to the EBP Programme were reduced by 318.2 lac tons during 2014 to November 2022.
The government is also looking forward to set up maximum 2G ethanol plants. Rice straw, wheat straw, and other agricultural leftovers can be converted to ethanol in a second generation or 2G ethanol plant. With India producing about 160MMT of surplus agricultural residues each year, 2G ethanol facilities present a huge business opportunity. A 100 kl per day facility can use 2 lakh tons of agricultural waste annually to produce about 3 crore litres of ethanol.
The chart shows that the diversion of sugar for the ethanol production has increased from 0.33 MT in 2018-19 to 3.6 LMT in 2021-22 and it is estimated that about 4.5 million tons of sugar would be diverted for the production of ethanol. The ethanol supply year is calculated from November 1 to October 31st. The government has taken a number of steps for increasing the ethanol production in the country as it is beneficial for the OMCs, farmers, economy and the environment too.
India is trying to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and move towards a future powered by ethanol but the journey is not easy as it seems as it involves a number of difficulties. But the Government of India along with all the stakeholders is actively working towards maximizing production of ethanol and building a green future for the country.
