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The Union government should restore the option of 10% ethanol-blended fuel, or E10 fuel, at petrol pumps for older vehicles, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said in an article published in The Indian Express on Monday.
The government’s Ethanol Blended Petrol programme mandates that all petrol sold in the country be blended with 20% ethanol – a substance produced from sugarcane and food grain. The policy is aimed at reducing India’s dependency on fossil fuels, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting income for sugarcane farmers.
However, consumers have complained that the new fuel mix damages engines and reduces their mileage.
Nageswaran and co-author Akash Poojari, a consultant with the Department of Economic Affairs, said that India has roughly 75 million to 80 million older two-wheelers that run on carburettors, which regulate the air-fuel mixture in an engine.
The carburettor-based engines cannot detect the additional oxygen in the E20 variant of petrol and adjust the fuel-air mixture accordingly, they said. As a result, the engine receives too little fuel for the amount of air drawn in, causing it to run hotter.
They also pointed to a separate concern involving older rubber seals that are not designed to withstand ethanol. The condition of the seals can deteriorate when exposed to the fuel, irrespective of engine temperature, they said. While replacing them with ethanol-compatible seals is relatively inexpensive, the process would have to be carried out vehicle by vehicle.
“Covering 75 to 80 million two-wheelers that way will take years, even if every workshop starts today,” they said.
Restoring E10, with the option to buy E20 fuel would “calm most public concern, lower total ethanol use instead of raising it and protect the existing fleet while the retrofit programme catches up”, they added.
On July 10, the Union government said that the suggestions by the public that petrol not blended with ethanol and E10 should be available at fuel stations alongside E20 “ignores the realities” of India’s fuel distribution network.
The Ministry of Petroleum had said that there are more than one lakh petrol pumps, besides a network of refineries, terminals, depots and pipelines.
“Maintaining multiple grades of base petrol across this vast supply chain would create an enormous logistical challenge, increase handling costs, complicate inventory management and reduce operational efficiency,” it had added.
The government had also said that while premium fuels are often cited as an example of simultaneous sale, they are “niche products sold in limited quantities” and “not separate nationwide base fuel streams”.
The article published on Monday also rejected claims that E20 fuel causes engine damage or increases wear in cars not rated for E20.
Nageswaran and Poojari said that ethanol carries about two-thirds the energy of petrol, and provides slightly lower mileage. However, since ethanol accounts for only 20% of the blend, the “energy penalty is around 6% to 7%, not the 30% doing the rounds”.
On engine durability, they cited testing by the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which ran 86 vehicles for nearly 10 million km on fuel blends of up to E20 and found no increased wear in cars not rated for E20.
“India’s own testing by the Automotive Research Association of India, the petroleum institute, and Indian Oil reached the same conclusion,” they added.
The article came amid criticism of the E20 rollout from some vehicle owners. An opinion poll by survey platform LocalCircles published on July 5 showed that 53% of respondents who owned petrol vehicles believed that the government’s handling of the E20 rollout was “disastrous” or “ineffective”.
Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.
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