India close to achieving 5% average ethanol blending: Isma chief

The country is close to achieving ethanol blending mainly because of a fixed-price mechanism

Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma) President Tarun Sawhney on Friday said India was close to achieving an average five per cent ethanol blending across the country, mainly because of a fixed-price mechanism.

He highlighted the need for cars and other vehicles that could run on 100 per cent ethanol, and also said that there was a need to set up several more sugarcane-based ethanol distilleries to increase the average blending to 10 per cent.

Speaking at a workshop on ethanol in New Delhi, Sawhney said that lead time for ethanol-based distilleries needed to be brought down to encourage investments and aid setting up of more such units.

"There is no chance of a sharp decline in sugarcane output in the next few years," he said.

Calling for banks to include ethanol in priority-sector lending, Sawhney said India needed 2.66 billion litres of ethanol to achieve 10 per cent blending, while total capacity of sugar industry was about two billion litres.