New Delhi: The government is working to permit ethanol blending above E20, the 20 percent ethanol blend currently sold in petrol, Advisor to the Prime Minister Tarun Kapoor said on Wednesday. Flex-fuel vehicles are what would make a higher blend usable, and Kapoor said several automobile companies have announced plans to roll such vehicles out soon.
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He was addressing the fourth edition of The India Sugar & Bio-Energy Conference 2026 virtually, where he described the E20 programme as "very successful" so far. "Now our focus is on going into flexi-fuel vehicles and allowing blending at a percentage which will be higher than E20," he said. Pure ethanol will have to be made more widely available at fuel outlets as those vehicles reach the road, he added.
The push for biofuels has become more critical because of the West Asia crisis, according to Kapoor. He said the crisis has disrupted supplies and driven crude oil prices to nearly USD 100 a barrel, with fears of a further rise. "It is important that we try to have whatever is available in the country," he said.
Ethanol production capacity in the country has already surpassed what blending requires, Kapoor said. That leaves the industry to find additional uses for ethanol if the surplus capacity is to be put to work.
Turning to the criticism E20 blending has drawn recently, Kapoor said much of it stemmed from misinformation or "motivated reasons," and that studies had shown the blend performs well. Any marginal decline in fuel efficiency, he said, is offset by the higher octane content.
For the diesel segment, the government is looking at biofuel-based additives. Kapoor said experiments with isobutanol could open up a "large" new avenue for biofuels if they succeed, since diesel accounts for a significant share of refinery output.
Kapoor also pointed to the government's new GOBARdhan scheme, which brings together incentives from several ministries to promote compressed biogas (CBG). Progress in that segment has been limited so far, he said. He urged ethanol manufacturers to diversify into CBG production and into other value-added by-products such as potash.
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The government remains "totally committed" to the biofuels sector, Kapoor said, and will work to ensure that existing investments face no uncertainty as the market expands.
