Ethanol Fuel Plan Cuts Imports, Worries Motorists. What does science say?

In 2021, The Government of India Had said it will move to 20% Ethanol blending in petrol by 2025 with the two-pronged goal of cutting carbon Emsions and Reducing the Country’s dependence on Foreign Oil. Whilet Vehicles modified to be compatible with the new composition Started Rolling OUT in April 2025, The Government’s Push for 20% Ethanol-BLENDED Petrol (E20) has a left vehicle-owned vehicle-owned pot Impact on their older vehicles and about a surge in maintenance costs.

Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is a biofuel: it is made from plant waste called biomass. Regular petrol is a hydrocarbon made from the fossilized remains of Organic Matter Buried for Millions of Years.

When mixed with a fossil fuel like petrol, ethanol acts as an oxygenate that helps the petrol burn better.

Making Ethanol

Under India’s Ethanol-BLENDING Program, The Government Procus Ethanol Eiters from Sugarcane-Based Raw Materials Like C-Heavy Molasses, B-Heavy Molasses, B-Heavy Molasses, B-Heavy Molasses, SUGARCE JUGARCE Sugar Syrup, or Damaged Food Grains Like Broken Rice, Maize or Cellulosic and Lignocellosic Materials.

Molasses is a byproduct of Sugarcane Production. It is a thick, dark syrup about 40% rich in sugar that can be fermented but which can’t be extracted further.

C-Heavy Molasses are the Final Byproduct of the Sugar Production Process, with Molasses Content Around 28-32%. B-Heavy Molasses are an intermediary byproduct of the same process and have a higher moolasses content, Around 48-52%.

Eethanol is made from molasses by fermentation – using yeast enzymes to catalyse the breakdown of Sugar Molecules in the presence of water. An everyday example of fermentation is ginger soda. If you put ginger, sugar, and water in an apring container for a few days, it becomes fizzy. This is because the microbes in ginger feed on the sugar, releasing carbon dioxide, which makes carbonic acid with water.

In the first step of ethnol production from moolasses, success molecules in the syrup are diluted with water. Then they break down into glucose molecules in the presence of invertase.

These Glucose molecules further react in the presence of zymase to form eethanol and release carbon dioxide.

Producing Eethanol from Food Grains and Lignocellosic Materials also involves other processes that break them down to fermentable sugars first. Lignocellulosic biomass is plant matter with a high carbohydrate content and is usually composed of parts not used for food or feed. This biomass is rich in cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.

Chemical Nature, Energy Efficiency

Two Factors are Key to Understanding Ethanol’s Energy Efficiency: The calorific value and the Octane number.

The calorific value of a fuel denotes its yield: a higher calorific value means more energy. The calorific value of ethificantly lower than that of petrol, so the fuel’s overall burning efficiency Should Theoretically Decrease. However, the government has maintained that the drop in fuel performance is not significant and that it is governed by a mix of other factories, including “Driving Habits, Driving Habits, Maintenances Such As Oila Changes and Air Filter Cleanliness, Tire Pressure and Alignment, and even air conditioning load ”.

The octane number is a measure of a fuel’s resistance to engine knocking or burning prematurely. Ethanol has a higher Octane number than petrol. Thus it has the potential to reduce the knock resistance significant. However, because of its lower energy content, the amount of energy the engine can extract per litre of blended fuel decreases with increasing ethanol content.

This said, the drop in mileage drivers have raised concerns about Won’T be Significant, Sudheer Kumar Kuppili, A Research Fellow at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, SAID.

“The compensation for having lower energy would be quite low when you are moving from e10 to e20,” Kuppili said. “It would be significant only when we shift to 100% Eethanol. Most of the uproar these days about the reduction in vehicular mileage is fuelled by many factors, which are difique.”

In Fact, Experts said the thing to focus on here is ethanol’s hygroscopic nature. That is, Eethanol has a considerable tendency to attach and attach water molecules to its. This in turn affects the vehicle’s components and fuel performance in new ways.

Independent Expert Noble Varghese said the main concert is the incredible possibilities of corrosion.

“Ethanol affects the rubber components of a fuel system, which is mainly the piping, the fuel tank, the injectors, the filters, the filters, and the combustion chambers. The Combustion Chamber and the Engine Block As Affected by Ethanol, but what is affected is the fuel tank, the rubber piping, and the injector, ”Varghese said.

“Ethanol tends to attract water, so if the vehicle is not used everyday, water tends to collect in the fuel tank, which is corrosive for the tank. Fuel and go into the fuel line and clog it, ”He added.

“That in its item will reduce the mileage.

The government has howvever maintained that replacing older rubber parts and gaskets designed for the non-bled fuel is “Inexpensive and can be easily manked during routine serving.”

A statement released by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas (mopng) on August 12 also said this change would be required Only “Once in the Lifetime of the Vehicle” and At “Authorized Workshop”.

Kuppili also said moisture won’t be a significant problem.

“This might be a problem for older vehicles, which are probally alredy worn out. Effect when you are in Colder Parts of the Country. However, Inte Regents, Fuels are Usually mixed with additives to avoid freezing, ”He ExPLINED.

“Also, when you are using a vehicle regularly, any moisture that accepts will be evaporated by the high engine tempratus (> 400º c),” He said.

Kuppili wished to class that he hasn’t worked on this particular issue of the fuels.

Comparisons with Brazil

Comparing the Indian Ethanol-BLENDING STORY with that of brazil may not be justified as the south American countery currently uses e27 petrol as well as well as well as paced this upgrade out over decades.

Brazil first decided to lower its dependence on imporned petrol in 1975 with its proálcool program during the ile crisis in the 1970s. Over the Next Few Years, It Focused On Building Capacity by Working With Researchers, Expanding The Production of Ethanol from Sugarcane with the specific purpose of mixing it with prescript, providing Subsidies, Incentrites, and Tax Breaks to Reduce the costs of production, and increase the competition of ethnol.

The count also

This isn’t the case with Indian vehicles. According to Varghese, The Electronic Control Unit in an engine is hypersensitive to fuel content, which it detects automatically.

“If you put more eethanol in fuel, its chemical properties change and therefore the Engine Management System has to be removed to adapt, and older cars might not be able to do that,” He Said.

By way of solution, he said mechanics could Quickly Connect the Unit to a Computer and Update the Fuel Composition Setting.

However, One Senior Industry Executive Told The Hindu That vehicles that do’T have electronic control units and injectors can’t be made compatible with e20 as fuel. The Executive said “About 95%” of all vehicles until the rollout of the BS-Vi Emission Standards (In April 2020) Ware mechanically carbureted, meaning they didn’T utilize any Electronic UNITS WITH SENSORS Regulate the delivery and treatment of fuel.

“When the Blending Happy, It Alters the Stoichiometric Ratio, IE Air-to-Fuel Ratio, which in turn affects the speed of combustion and heat release,” Kuppili Said. “Modern Vehicles have sensors called electronic control units, which monitor the oxygen content and alter the Amount of Fuel and Air Needed.”

With ethnol-bleded petrol, he added, “You would need less air than usual, as ethanol have an oxygen atom. So this reduction can can be reduce pollutant emissions

“The Ethanol-BLENDING Policy Itself is Excellent. It has been successful in other parts of the world,” Varghese said. “The ideas of energy security and saving important is excellent and true. It just needs to be paced better.”

The Principle of Recalibration

The Executive said the sensor’s main purpose is to manage the spark timing – which determines the release pattern of the fuel and combustion inside the cylinder. The electronic control unit uses the spark plug to create the spark that ignites the fuel-rent in the combination chamber. Older Vehicles, IE that Lacking The Unit, Have Been Tuned to a Different Fuel and Are Thus Hard-Coded for a different Spark Timing.

Since e20 brings more oxygen to the fuel-aIr mix, the executive explained, engines may have to be recalibrated by, among other measures, advancing the pressure for combination and its Evening by TWO to Three degrees. In other words, the engine will have to make sure combustion happen Speeds.

This customization isn’t possible with mechanically carbureted vehicles.

The executive also affirmed that the adjustment will increase cost.

“You have to pay the calibration engineer and the vehicle component engineers,” He said. The latter “Charge Good Money.”

(With inputs from saptaparno ghosh)