Ethanol Bending- The Hindu-17-08-2022

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Context :

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India has achieved its target of blending
10% sugarcane extracted ethanol in petrol, ahead of schedule.

What is ethanol blending?

Blending ethanol with petrol to burn less fossil fuel while running vehicles is called
ethanol blending. Ethanol is an agricultural byproduct which is mainly obtained from
the processing of sugar from sugarcane, but also from other sources such as rice husk or maize.

Ethanol is simple alcohol with the chemical formula C2H6O.


(10% of the petrol that powers your vehicle is ethanol)

How is Ethanol blending important for India?

Ethanol blending will help bring down our share of oil imports (almost 85%) on which we spend a considerable amount of our precious foreign exchange.
More ethanol output would help increase farmers’ incomes.
It helps in reducing vehicle emissions, improves air quality, and increases our energy independence.
Ethanol burns completely emitting nil carbon dioxide.
The 2G ethanol project will reduce greenhouse gases equivalent to about
three lakh tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum, which is the same as replacing
almost 63,000 cars annually on our roads.