New Delhi: Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) on June 09 initiated a revolutionary pilot study on automobiles using E27 fuel and Ethanol Blended Diesel Fuel; the step that makes it the first Oil Marketing Company in India to start a comprehensive research program, said the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.
By when?
The company said such a move is in line with the roadmap for ethanol blending in India by 2025, which has already set an objective to promote the adoption of ethanol blending in gasoline.
“The roadmap, designed to usher in a greener and more sustainable future, outlines a phased rollout plan for achieving 20% Ethanol Blended Gasoline (E20) by April 2023 and ensuring its widespread availability by April 2025. It further emphasizes the introduction of E20 material-compliant and E10 engine-tuned vehicles starting from April 2023, followed by the production of E20-tuned engine vehicles from April 2025,” the Ministry stated.
The preliminary studies done by the ministry conducted on vehicles fueled with E27 have shown noteworthy reductions in emissions as carbon dioxide with others, as compared to traditional gasoline.
In accordance with the study, the petroleum company will also assess ethanol-diesel trials on passenger cars, wanting a mileage accumulation of 20,000 km initially.
India’s next target in the ethanol blending program is to cover 27 per cent of blending beyond E20 fuel.
Earlier in February, HPCL launched E20 fuel in 23 retail outlets across the nation. Presently, India’s 21 states have 350 E20 outlets.
HPCL attained a reduction of roughly 3000 MT of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions so far. As per the estimates, the usage of E20 fuel will help in reducing more than 200 lakh MT of emissions by the year 2023.
