Indian scenario of ethanol fuel and its utilization in automotive transportation sector

Abstract About 85% of petroleum oil need of India is being met through imports. Indian economy is growing steadily resulting in rapid increase of vehicular population and demand for transportation fuels. Indian Government has already mandated blending of ethanol in gasoline by 10% to reduce the oil import. Bureau of Indian Standards is finalizing the specification of 20% ethanol blended gasoline for use as vehicular fuel. In this context, this review presents the current and future scenario of Indian transportation, petroleum oil and bio-fuel sectors including global progress on utilization of ethanol as an alternative transportation fuel in spark ignition vehicles. The data from various standard reference sources were compiled, analyzed and is presented. The review indicates that the gasoline demand would be around 44 billion liters by the year 2020 and India has a potential to produce ethanol to the tune of 30 billion liters per annum in addition to existing capacity. Apart from augmenting production of first generation ethanol, the second generation ligno-cellulosic ethanol and thermo-chemical conversion of carbon-rich agricultural/petroleum residues are seen as alternative options. The potential of such alternative feed stocks and ethanol conversion technologies need to be exploited to increase ethanol availability for blending. The review indicates that ethanol is most suitable fuel for spark ignition engines due to its higher octane number. Ethanol blending reduces sulphur, aromatics, olefin and benzene content in gasoline and can reduce vehicular emissions such as hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and particulate matter.