PM To Inaugurate IOC Ethanol Plant Near Panipat Tomorrow

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will tomorrow inaugurate Indian Oil Corporation's Rs 900 crore ethanol factory. The project, which is close to the Panipat refinery of the state-run company, will produce roughly 30 million liters of ethanol annually using about 0.2 million tonnes of rice straw.

The government issued a statement saying, "The dedication of the plant is part of a long series of steps taken by the government over the years to boost the production and usage of biofuels in the country,” the government said in a statement. Notably, August 10 is observed as World Biofuel Day.

The second generation (2G) plant will give farmers additional revenue and substantially address environmental issues caused by burning rice straw in fields. During the most recent ethanol sugar year, IOC mixed 9.18 percent of ethanol with gasoline (November 2020 – October 2021). Just 6.87 percent of this occurred the year before.

India's National Biofuel Policy, published in 2018, set a 2030 deadline for blending 20 percent of ethanol into gasoline, but the government has moved up the deadline to 2025–2026. As of July 24, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) had a 10.16 percent blending rate for the current ethanol supply year. In 2018–19, only 5% of gasoline contained ethanol. By 2025, IOC plans to increase its refining capacity from 70 million tonnes per year to 88 MTPA.