Ethanol could soon make its way to Indian kitchens

Mumbai: The petroleum and natural gas ministry is working on a policy framework to introduce ethanol as a mainstream cooking fuel, according to industry executives aware of the development.

To promote ethanol usage, the policy will look at the terms of providing subsidies and building the supply chain. Industry bodies representing fuel suppliers are also said to be in parallel consultations with the government on the framework.

"An alternative clean cooking policy is in the works that would help ethanol to be adopted alongside LPG (liquified petroleum gas) as a household cooking fuel," said one of the executives, who did not wish to be identified adding that the policy could be ready by September.


Queries sent to the ministry did not elicit a response till press time.

Ethanol is a green fuel produced by the fermentation of sugars and good grains.

In April, ET had reported that at the behest of the government, ethanol-based cooking stoves were being tested as a cleaner household fuel alternative.

Using ethanol as a cooking fuel will help India reduce its dependence on LPG and save on its expanding fuel bill.

"To promote ethanol cooking, the government may roll out some sort of a subsidy scheme too that would be capital-driven (a one-time investment support) or an ongoing fiscal commitment," said a second industry executive.

The push for ethanol as a cooking fuel comes as India is flush with ethanol supply. The country's ethanol production capacity has crossed 20 billion litres a year, with another 4 billion set to come onstream in this financial year, CareEdge Ratings said in a May report.

After about 11 billion litres a year is used for the government's E20 blending programme, liquor makers, pharmaceutical companies and chemical manufacturers consume another 3-3.5 billion litres, leaving nearly 7 billion litres of unused capacity.

With this surplus capacity India may also look at exporting ethanol to neighbouring countries, including Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia, which have 10% ethanol blending targets but lack adequate feedstock and distilling capacity.

Oil marketing companies are also said to be engaging on the issue and have undertaken research and development of ethanol-based stoves, and are also looking for a possible partnership or acquisition of available ethanol cooking technologies.

Industry executives added that to launch the scheme, the oil marketing companies could be asked to launch ethanol automated teller machines (ATMs) for users to procure ethanol in canisters for the stoves. These ATMs could be positioned at the fuel retail outlets of the oil companies.

"We all saw how the West Asia war impacted India's LPG supply. It is a good option to use excess ethanol capacity as an alternative fuel to LPG and reduce imports of the fuel," said another industry executive.

Though India has diversified its LPG sourcing since the West Asia war began on February 28, the country still depends heavily on Gulf nations for LPG imports, a significant portion of which moves through the Strait of Hormuz. The state-run oil marketing companies are preparing a nearly 30-day strategic LPG storage plan to bolster energy security after the Iran war exposed India's supply risks through the critical waterway.

Transitioning to e-cooking and biogas could save India more than Rs 2 lakh crore ($24 billion) in cumulative LPG subsidies by 2050, said a report titled 'India's Clean Cooking Shift: Scaling non-fossil fuel solutions' by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, released in February.