Govt Eyes Higher Ethanol Blending Through Flex-Fuel Vehicles: PM Advisor

New Delhi, Sep 10 (KNN) The government is working to allow ethanol blending in petrol beyond the current E20 level, with higher blending to be enabled through flex-fuel vehicles, Advisor to the Prime Minister Tarun Kapoor said on Wednesday.

Addressing the fourth edition of the India Sugar & Bio-Energy Conference 2026, Kapoor said the E20 programme had been successful and several automobile companies were preparing to introduce flex-fuel vehicles.

“E20 has been very successful. Now our focus is on going into flexi-fuel vehicles and allowing blending at a percentage which will be higher than E20 and it will have to be through flexi-fuel vehicles,” he added, PTI reported.

E20 petrol contains 80 per cent petrol and 20 per cent ethanol.

Govt Sees Larger Role for Biofuels

Kapoor noted that biofuels and other alternative energy sources were becoming increasingly important for India, particularly amid the West Asia crisis, which has disrupted supplies and pushed crude oil prices towards USD 100 a barrel.

“The industry has also been very supportive and we've got huge capacities,” the advisor said.

He highlighted that domestic ethanol production capacity had surpassed current blending requirements, making it necessary to develop additional uses and markets for ethanol.

Defending E20, Kapoor emphasised that ethanol has been a major success story, while criticism of E20 blending has largely been driven by misinformation or “motivated reasons.”

“But then a lot of studies have been done, a lot of experiments have been done, and it has come out that E20 is quite good and works very well. Maybe a little bit of fuel efficiency declines somewhere, but it gets compensated with higher octane,” the advisor said, as quoted by PTI.

The issues being reported are generally due to factors other than ethanol blending, he added.

He noted that the availability of pure ethanol and related additives at fuel stations would also need to expand as flex-fuel vehicles become more widely available.

Focus on CBG, Diesel Alternatives

On diesel, Kapoor said the government was examining biofuel-based additives, including the potential use of isobutanol. A successful application could create a significant new market for biofuels given diesel’s large share of refinery output.

“We are very keen that we are able to expand the market as much as possible so that this overcapacity issue is resolved at the earliest,” he noted.

He also urged ethanol manufacturers to explore compressed biogas (CBG) production under the government's GOBARdhan scheme. Biofuel producers, he said, should also maximise value from by-products such as potash.

“I also assure all of you that from the government side we are totally committed to biofuels. And we want to promote; we want the market to grow so that the capacity which has been created, whatever investments have been made, those investments don't have any challenges, or they don't have any anxieties,” Kapoor said.

(KNN Bureau)