New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Karnataka visit today, introduced the E20 fuel, a combination of petrol & 20% ethanol at the India Energy Week in Bengaluru. This comes as the pilot project of E20 fuel and this will be rolled out across the country in a phased manner in near future. Petrol blended with 20% ethanol will go a long way in addressing pollution concerns and also help evolve public awareness on green fuel. The move comes at a time when the country & world is battling rising pollution levels. Auto experts believe that it is a decisive step towards development of a cleaner transportation. What is E20 fuel? As the name suggests, the E20 green fuel indicates its composition as 20% ethanol and 80% petrol. The number 20 refers to proportion of ethanol added in the petrol. Currently, Ethanol mixing in petrol stands at about 10%. The government has decided to increase this blending to 20% and hopes to make this E20 fuel available to public soon. Ethanol doesn’t need crude oil and is made naturally by fermenting sugar. It is mostly derived from sugarcane, however, can also be extracted from other organic crops like corn. As India produces lot of sugarcane and grain, this would make enhance India’s potential of meeting own fuel demand with own produce to a large extent. How E20 fuel will ‘purify’ your vehicle? With petrol contributing heavily to pollution, this comes as a big move from India to add to the ‘green fuel’ reserve. Analysts believed that this will find strong resonance among car lovers as there aren’t many electric vehicles in the country and this will go a long way in filling up for the transition. Among the vehicles plying on Indian roads, who are compatible with E20 petrol include Creta, Venue, and Alcazar SUVs from Hyundai Motor India. All of them can operate on E20 blended petrol.
