Facing backlash, Government likely to delay higher 25% ethanol blend in petrol

AMID A raging backlash over a rapid increase in the use of ethanol in petrol from 10% to 20% in just three years, the government is likely to push back the proposed shift to a higher blend of ethanol fuel E25 comprising 75% petrol and 25% ethanol.

The government had originally planned to dispense petrol blended with 20% ethanol only by 2030. But the E20 fuel — 80% petrol and 20% ethanol — is now the standard petrol variant available nationwide.

While no formal date has been announced for dispensing E25 blended petrol, two government decisions over the last six weeks triggered fresh concerns: one, central excise duty exemption for blended fuel (22%-30% ethanol) and two, fuel standards notified by BIS for these blends.

These measures were inferred as heralding the government’s intent to prepare the vehicular and fuel ecosystems for the next stage of ethanol adoption, with the specific proposal to go beyond E20 stoking concern among both car makers and motorists.

But even before this, the rapid upshift or advancing of the transition to E20 by five years has left a section of consumers complaining about a perceptible drop in fuel economy. They have also expressed concerns over vehicular part damage in older cars, especially as ethanol content progressively goes up.

In the backdrop of such sentiments, a meeting at the most senior levels of the government last week is learnt to have advised about the need to scientifically address some of the genuine concerns. This included an effort to ask OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to address the consumer complaints. Officials also said some of which are inferred to be “overblown”.

The sources said the government reckons the need to give sufficient time for ecosystem readiness and why they must avoid pushing through the transition to the E25 fuel, especially in the context of the rushed E20 transition earlier.

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“There is a view (within the government) that the transition beyond E20 will need to be spaced out. That is the sense we have got from vehicle manufacturers too. The idea is to go to E25 in a calibrated, graded manner for existing vehicles,” a senior government official told The Indian Express.

It is, however, the transition to the E25 fuels that has players in the vehicular ecosystem worried, especially given how rushed the E10 to E20 transition was. For older vehicles and those certified for E10 petrol, this transition came about rather quickly, without sufficient warnings of the consumer-end pitfalls. The experience left motorists, especially those owning older cars and two-wheelers, feeling somewhat short-changed.

Explained

What is the ethanol advantage?

Ethanol has many positives including low carbon content, and lower dependence on import of fossil fuels. But a rapid increase in ethanol has triggered concerns, which the govern­ment plans to address before introducing E25.

Using a higher ethanol blend in petrol for engines, especially those not designed for these blends, results in a drop in fuel economy depending on when the car was manufactured. Older vehicles fare comparatively worse in this transition. While a fuel with 10% ethanol (E10) made little difference to a car’s performance, the transition to E20 did impact the operational parameters of older vehicles. And the worsening of the performance does not exactly progress in a linear fashion as the blending levels keep increasing.

Ethanol has lower calorific value than petrol, which results in a perceptible drop in mileage. Also, regular petrol cars running on higher ethanol blends, alongside the drop in mileage, are harder to start on winter mornings because ethanol burns at a higher temperature than petrol. The concern that auto companies have expressed is that filling E25 fuel in internal combustion engine vehicles, especially older ones, could see some damage to parts owing to factors like corrosion, given ethanol’s hygroscopic nature that promotes water uptake.

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Ethanol also has its positives, including a higher octane number (or the fuel’s ability to withstand premature combustion due to compression). Plus, higher blending is more eco-friendly given ethanol’s lower carbon content and cuts down on fuel imports. Multiple carmakers in India told The Indian Express that they have now begun working on engines with higher compression ratios to extract the maximum mileage out of higher ethanol blends, but that is all for the future. The transition to E25 is something that vehicle owners privately admit to be concerned about, especially if this is rushed through. On its part, the government continues to maintain that the roll-out of higher ethanol-petrol blends will only be done after proper testing and stakeholder consultations.

The proposed E25 transition requires automakers to do additional engineering and validation work around engine calibration, fuel-system durability, corrosion resistance, and material compatibility. And homologation — the process that officially certifies a vehicle or component as compliant with regulations pertaining to safety, environment, and road-worthiness — at the end. All this needs time, which could be impacted if the transition is a rushed affair.