Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: Ethanol Blending in India)

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E20 petrol, or petrol with 20 percent ethanol, is now available at 1,350 fuel retail outlets and will be available all over the country by 2025.

The sale of E20 petrol was launched by PM Modi in February this year, starting with 84 retail outlets of public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs).
The number of outlets dispensing E20 petrol has jumped to 1,350.
In all, India has close to 87,000 fuel retail outlets.
Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA) will be opened to other countries for membership on July 22 at G20 Energy Transition Ministerial Meeting in Goa.

Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as petroleum.
However, the word biofuel is usually reserved for liquid or gaseous fuels, used for transportation.
Most of biofuel consumption occurs as a blend with refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, and kerosenetype jet fuel.
The most common biofuels now are – Bioalcohols such as ethanol, propanol, and butanol; Biodiesel; Bio-oils.

Biofuels are divided into four categories:

1. First Generation:

1G biofuels are produced from consumable food items containing starch (rice and wheat) and sugar (beets and sugarcane) for bioalcohols, or vegetable oils for biodiesel.

2. Second Generation:

2G biofuels are mainly obtained from non-food feedstocks such as forest/ industry/agricultural wastes and waste or used vegetable oils.

3. Third generation:

3G biofuels, known as ‘algae fuel’, are derived from algae in the form of both, biodiesel and bioalcohols.
But producing adequate algal biomass and scaling up extraction techniques are as yet unresolved challenges.

4. Fourth generation:

Ethanol is a biofuel, naturally produced by the fermentation of sugars by yeasts or by petrochemical processes like ethylene hydration.
Ethanol is high in oxygen content, allowing an engine to more thoroughly combust fuel.
In ethanol blending, a blended motor fuel containing ethyl alcohol derived from agricultural products is blended with petrol specifically.

The GBA is one of the priorities under India’s G20 Presidency.
The USA and Brazil, which are working with India to build the GBA, are seen as global leaders in biofuels and account for 55 percent and 27 percent of global ethanol production, respectively.
The GBA is also being supported by major international organizations like the World Economic Forum, the International Energy Forum, and the International Energy Agency, among others.
The Alliance is expected to be launched on July 22 during the G20 Clean Energy Ministerial in Goa.