India imports fossil fuel worth Rs.16 lakh crore annually. This bill can be reduced by encouraging more and more use of ethanol a vehicular fuel, as is done in many countries around the world. At present, Brazil is the leader in ethanol production. However, it can be replaced by India, provided there is a concerted national endeavour. Maharashtra has the potential to play a dominant role in this activity.
Last year, India’s ethanol production was 450 crore litres. There have been plans to achieve the target of 20 percent mix of ethanol with vehicle fuel. To make this a reality, at least 1000 crore litres of ethanol will be required to be produced domestically. This can be possible only if production of ethanol directly from sugar is increased. This will pose a tall challenge for India but needs to be taken on in the long run to achieve sufficiency in fuel consumption.
It is a fact that even the present ethanol production has resulted in the country saving over Rs.40,000 crore worth of foreign exchange. Still, this achievement is somewhat insignificant against the backdrop of India’s massive import bill for fuels. As far as Maharashtra is concerned, its share in the national ethanol production is of around 30 percent now. If ethanol is directly produced from sugar on a larger basis, this share can go up, reducing the import bill as well.
In the preceding year, Maharashtra’s sugarcane growers and the sugar sector have established many records, considering the history of the establishment of sugar industry in the state. Total ethanol production in Maharashtra in 2021-22 was around 134 crore litres, which would convert to about Rs.7800 crore in the oil market.
Maharashtra has maintained a lion’s share in the sugar export from India over the decades. Presently, Maharashtra’s share in this export is of over 60 percent. The state produced 146 lakh million tons of sugar in the year 2021-22. Besides being an all-time high achievement, it showed an increase of about 25 percent over the previous year. A parallel feat is that Maharashtra has become the largest producer of sugar, surpassing Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra has nearly 200 sugar factories of which 100 are in the cooperation sector while another about 100 are privately run. Due to Maharashtra’s increased share, sugar exports from India also created a new record. Incidentally, the area under sugarcane cultivation also has increased in the state, to create another record.
In May 2022, the Union government capped sugar exports to regulate prices within the country. The decision is expected to maintain the closing stocks at the end of the sugar season (30 September) to 65 lakh tons, enough to fulfil the country’s needs for the next three months as monthly domestic requirement of sugar is an estimated 24 lakh tons. Crushing of the new produce has started in October in Karnataka, in November in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh and later in other states. The crushing season will end sometime in March or April, given the total yield of the crop. Occasionally, it is extended up to May end in Maharashtra when production is excess.
Future projections by various experts suggest that the demand for fuel will be as important as food. The sugar industry in general and particularly in Maharashtra will play a dominant role in this scenario. Therefore, it could be renamed as “energy industry” according to sugar co-operator Jayprakash Dandegavkar.
According to official data, the state’s ethanol production cycle begins from 1 December and lasts till 30 November. In 2020-21, Maharashtra produced over 100 crore litres of ethanol from 78 factories. For the current year, the ethanol production is expected at 116 crore litres from 85 factories. Final computation of this sector will become available soon. The production is likely to be around 140 crore litres during 2022-23 from 90 factories. This can be diversified into generation of electricity and hydrogen also in the years to come.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari has been a strong advocate of the use of ethanol as a fuel of the future. Addressing an ethanol conclave in Pune last week, he said India’s annual sugar need is around 280 lakh tons though the production this year is expected to be nearly 380 lakh tons. This means 100 lakh tons of excess stocks can be available. Already, the country is flush with stocks of foodgrains, so much so that mounds of stocks are kept at some railway platforms in Punjab and Haryana. Therefore, there is no food shortage in India and not likely to occur in future, too.
At the same time, the Union government has permitted ethanol production from foodgrains so that fair prices are guaranteed for the producers, considering the market forces. Similarly, ethanol needs to be produced from molasses directly. To boost this trend, the government has hiked the procurement price of ethanol as well as reduced the GST levy. As the green revolution in India has become a success, a great opportunity beckons for use of foodgrains in achieving fuel oil self-sufficiency.
Gadkari’s vision includes largescale cultivation of bamboo, which can grow even in adverse agricultural conditions, needing less water. Ethanol can be produced from bamboo, experiments in Assam have shown. Fossil remains of dead plants and animals in the earth’s crust are the best source of fuel oil production. A technology to do this is already available but is quite expensive. Efforts are underway to bring down the cost of this process.
Describing the national and international ethanol scenario, Gadkari said nearly 2000 crore litres of diesel is consumed in India for energy generation. A generator running on bio-ethanol fuel can save the cost of generation by about 50 percent. Till recently, there was a vast difference between the mileages obtained from petrol and ethanol. However, researchers in Russia have been successful in closing this gap. Several two-wheeler manufacturing companies have entered into the ethanol-bike sector. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently inaugurated two ethanol pumps in Pune. All such efforts indicate a positive achievement.
Gadkari has been insistent on using every avenue to add to India’s energy generation capacity. In this connection, he feels there is no substitute to the use of ethanol, which is a clean, cheap and indigenously produced fuel. It can enhance the share of agriculture in the GDP, besides opening up vast employment opportunities in rural India. As highlighted repeatedly, Maharashtra can emerge as the leader state in this nation-building activity.
A Column By
Dilip Chaware – Senior Editor
A media professional for 43 years, with extensive experience of writing on
a variety of subjects; he is also a documentary producer and book author.
