ET Now | Will achieve 20 pc ethanol blending target in petrol: What oil minister Hardeep Puri said on India's gas consumption, CBG-CNG blending

Apr 17,2023

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday spoke about the country’s gas consumption sharing that grew around 3 per cent versus 1 per cent in the world. The minister also shared that India would achieve the 20 per cent ethanol blending target in petrol.

The minister, earlier this year, said that the Indian government has made significant progress in increasing the amount of ethanol blending in gasoline. Puri stated that the blending of ethanol in gasoline had risen from 1.53 per cent in 2013-14 to 10.17 per cent in 2022.

On Monday, Puri said that in the area of biofuel, we had a target of 20 per cent biofuel mixing by 2030 but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed the target to 2025. We will achieve it within the next year, the minister underscored, adding that we also reached our biofuel target of 2022, 5 months before the target.

He additionally informed that no retrofitting is required in vehicle to use 20 per cent blended petrol.

CBG-CNG Blending
The Centre is trying to blend CBG, short for Compressed Bio Gas, and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Speaking on the same, the oil minister said that they are hoping to bring down CBG price at the natural gas levels. Notably, the Union Budget 2023-24 has given a massive boost to biogas production by announcing fiscal support.

“In due course, a 5 per cent CBG mandate will be introduced for all organisations marketing natural and biogas,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech. “500 new ‘waste to wealth’ plants under GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme will be established for promoting circular economy.”

These will include 200 compressed biogas plants, including 75 plants in urban areas, and 300 community or cluster-based plants a total investment of Rs 10,000 crore.

CBG has calorific value and other properties similar to CNG and hence can be utilised as green renewable automotive fuel. Thus it can replace CNG in automotive, industrial and commercial areas, given the abundance biomass availability within the country.