New Delhi: Government is taking various measures to boost the ethanol production in India, due to which it has seen remarkable increase in the output.
According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, till year 2014, ethanol distillation capacity of molasses-based distilleries was only about 215 crore litres. However, in past 8 years due to the policy changes made by the Government, the capacity of molasses-based distilleries has been increased to 569 crore litres. Capacity of grain-based distilleries which was 206 crore litres in 2014 has increased to 298 crore litres. Thus, the total ethanol production capacities have increased from 421crore litres to 867 crore litres in just 8 years.
Supply of ethanol to OMCs was only 38 crore litres with blending levels of only 1.53 % in ethanol supply year (ESY) 2013-14. Production of fuel grade ethanol and its supply to OMCs has increased by 8 times from 2013-14 to 2020-21. In ethanol supply year 2020-21 (December – November), about 302.30 cr ltrs of ethanol has been supplied to OMCs.
Recently, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, had also approved the Amendments to the National Policy on Biofuels -2018. It will help further to raise the ethanol production.
