Does India have enough feedstock to meet its E20 fuel-blending targets by 2025?

Abstract

The Indian Government has set the target of achieving 20 per cent blending of ethanol (E20) in petrol by 2025-26. This is projected to achieve savings of about $4 billion in country’s annual oil import bill. The NITI Aayog projects country’s annual ethanol requirement at 10.16 billion litres to achieve the E20 mandate and an additional 3.34 billion litres to meet the demand from other industries. This paper estimates the requirement and availability of feedstock (sugarcane, rice, and maize) to meet these E20 mandates. The study reveals that India is not likely to have enough feedstocks to meet the E20 blending target by 2025-26. Besides, with climate change and growing pressures on land coupled with the country’s growing nutritional requirements, the government may do well to rethink its land-use policy, water-use policy and even its climate-related plans. It should define a medium to long-run roadmap of providing enough crops for fuel blending targets.