Impact of Ethanol blending with petrol
Oil import is the heaviest burden on India’s
foreign exchange. In the current
scenario ,oil import contributes significantly for the burgeoning Current account deficit, which is
worrisome. One way to reduce petrol consumption is to use ethanol as a fuel.
India being the second largest producer of sugar cane in the world , the risk
and investment involved in ethanol production is far lower than in oil
exploration and production. Blending of ethanol with petrol becomes a
necessity. In 2006, the government of
India launched a programme of five per cent mandatory ethanol blending, but it
is yet to materialise.
Ethanol
will help farmers sustain their income during the cyclical bumper harvests and
their lower sugar prices, as is the prevailing situation this year. India will
reduce its trade deficit and foreign exchange outflow. Moreover the reduction in green house gas (GHG)
emissions from ethanol compared with fossil fuels is drastic.
Brazil has already tasted it’s
success in blending ethanol with petrol. Now Brazilians have gone a step further into
cellulosic ethanol technology( Using waste materials and bagasse from sugar
mills). Brazil have flexi-fuel engines which run on 100 per cent ethanol
or 100 per cent petrol or any combination of the two.
Thus
India has to replicate the success of
Brazil in cellulosic ethanol technology.
What is Cellulosic ethanol?
Ø It is a type of biofuel produced
from lignocellulose, a structural
material that comprises much of the mass of plants.
1. Biomass is
harvested and delivered to the biorefinery.
2. Biomass is
cut into shreds and pretreated with heat and chemicals to make cellulose
accessible to enzymes.
3. Enzymes
break down cellulose chains into sugars.
4. Microbes
ferment sugars into ethanol.
5.
Ethanol is purified through distillation and prepared for
distribution.
There are two ways of producing ethanol from cellulose :
Ø Cellulolysis processes which consist of hydrolysis on
pretreated lignocellulosic materials, using enzymes to
break complex cellulose into simple sugars such
as glucose,
followed by fermentation and distillation.
Ø Gasification that
transforms the lignocellulosic raw material into gaseous carbon
monoxide and hydrogen. These gases can be converted to ethanol
by fermentation or chemical catalysis.
Advantages
of Cellulosic ethanol
Ø
cellulosic material is
widely available and is derived from a large resource of things.
Ø These crops are fast-growing and can be grown on many
types of land which makes them more versatile.
Ø Cellulosic ethanol can also be made from wood residues
(chips and sawdust), municipal solid waste such as trash or garbage, paper and
sewage sludge, cereal straws and grasses.
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