Ethanol suppliers have been forced to agree to bidding when it comes to supplying ethanol to oil cos. for 5% blending with petrol.
Jyoti Mukul & Sindhu Jain Bhattacharya
NEW DELHI: With the government’s alternate fuel programme for doping petrol with ethanol set to go national from November 1, experts feel that the next stage will be to make alternate fuels and hybrid technology for automobiles commercially viable.
Ethanol suppliers, comprising distillers and sugar companies, have been forced to agree to competitive bidding when it comes to supplying ethanol to oil companies for 5% blending with petrol. “Ethanol, on an average, costs about Rs 21.50 a litre which is what we are expecting the distillers to quote,” says one oil company official.
Buyers such as Indian Oil Corporation and other oil refiners may not mind the price though issues of taxation on ethanol, considered industrial alcohol in states, still exist. When it comes to biodiesel, currently being produced from non-edible oilseeds for blending with diesel, taxation is little better.
As far as automobiles are concerned, 5% blending of both petrol and diesel with ethanol does not require any change in vehicle engines. Beyond that level, though, automobile companies in India have to modify engines. They have, by and large, expressed their inability to invest in hybrids vehicles that improve fuel efficiency, citing the government’s apathy towards such technologies.
Hybrid vehicles run on more than one fuel simultaneously, with one engine mostly comprising electrical batteries.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) is making some efforts to lead the way in alternate fuels. It has signed a technology transfer agreement with its German counterpart VDA for developing alternate fuel-powered vehicles such as hybrids.
Says SIAM secretary general Dilip Chenoy: “We in India need to acquire technology which not only makes our vehicles more fuel-efficient but also provides us alternatives to traditional fuels such as petrol.” He cites the example of diesel that is a more thermally efficient fuel. The agreement with VDA will give our vehicle makers access to some of the most advanced technologies in alternate fuels and hybrid vehicles.”
Not only diesel, some preliminary work on other alternate fuels is also being done. The managing director of Tata Motors, Ravi Kant, said his company had been conducting a pilot project for running buses on biodiesel.
The company is operating 40 such buses for ferrying its own employees within Pune. Besides, the company has launched vehicles which can get CNG kits retro-fitted besides sporting diesel/petrol engines. The SIAM-VDA pact comes at a time when a host of car makers (including market leader Maruti Udyog and Hyundai Motor India) are preparing to come up with diesel cars. Also, Mahindra & Mahindra has taken the lead in developing an indigenous hybrid vehicle, the first of which should be commercially available within the next 18 months.
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