The government is exploring ethanol as a potential clean cooking fuel alternative to conventional fossil fuel-based cooking fuels, with the aim of reducing dependence on imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and making use of surplus domestic ethanol capacity, according to a Rajya Sabha response.
The initiative is being explored as part of efforts to diversify India's cooking fuel options and promote cleaner alternatives. Oil marketing companies (OMCs), including Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), are working on developing ethanol-based cooking fuel solutions.
The government has indicated that ethanol could potentially emerge as a clean cooking fuel, offering an alternative to conventional fossil fuel-based options.
The move comes against the backdrop of India's broader push towards cleaner energy sources and reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels. Ethanol is already widely used in India's transport sector through the country's ethanol blending programme for petrol.
The government is now examining whether the fuel can find applications beyond transportation, including household and commercial cooking.
However, the development of ethanol-based cooking fuel would require appropriate technologies, safety standards and distribution systems before it can become a commercially viable alternative to LPG.
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Separately, the government has ruled out the use of ethanol-diesel blends after testing by oil marketing companies found that such blends failed to meet the required flash-point specifications for diesel. According to the Rajya Sabha response, OMCs conducted tests on ethanol-diesel blends in collaboration with laboratories and automobile manufacturers.
The tests found that adding ethanol significantly reduces the flash point of diesel. Flash point is a critical fuel safety parameter that indicates the temperature at which a fuel can generate enough vapour to ignite.
The sharp reduction in diesel's flash point was found to be inconsistent with the prescribed safety and quality requirements, making ethanol-diesel blending unsuitable under the current specifications.
As a result, the government has ruled out ethanol blending with diesel, despite the successful expansion of ethanol blending in petrol.
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