Restore E10 fuel option for older vehicles, says chief economic adviser
· Scroll
The Union government should restore the option of 10% ethanol-blended fuel, or E10 fuel, at petrol pumps for older vehicles, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said in an article published in The Indian Express on Monday.
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The government’s Ethanol Blended Petrol programme mandates that all petrol sold in the country be blended with 20% ethanol – a substance produced from sugarcane and food grain. The policy is aimed at reducing India’s dependency on fossil fuels, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting income for sugarcane farmers.
However, consumers have complained that the new fuel mix damages engines and reduces their mileage.
Nageswaran and co-author Akash Poojari, a consultant with the Department of Economic Affairs, said that India has roughly 75 million to 80 million older two-wheelers that run on carburettors, which regulate the air-fuel mixture in an engine.
The carburettor-based engines cannot detect the additional oxygen in the E20 variant of petrol and adjust the fuel-air mixture accordingly, they said. As a result, the engine receives too little fuel for the amount of air drawn in, causing it to run hotter.
They also pointed to a separate concern involving older rubber seals that are not designed to withstand ethanol. The condition of the seals can deteriorate when exposed to the fuel, irrespective of engine temperature, they said. While replacing...