Patna: Towards fulfilling the mission of blending fossil fuel with ethanol, Bihar is aggressively foraying into Green fuel manufacturing.

The work is in progress to set up 15 Ethanol manufacturing units in the state.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on April 6, 2023 inaugurated an Ethanol manufacturing unit at Motipur in Muzaffarpur, about 100 Km away from Bihar’s capital Patna.

The plant, developed at a cost of Rs 152 crore, has the capacity to produce 110 Kilolitre of Ethanol per day from maize.

Maize is majorly grown in Seemanchal region, comprising Kosi and Purnia division and seven districts, including Araria, Madhepura, Saharsa, Supaul, Purnia, Kishanganj and Katihar.

The Chief Minister had inaugurated the country’s first Ethanol plant at Purnia in May last year. Altogether 17 Ethanol-producing units have been approved in Bihar, including one in Purnia with a capacity of 65,000 litre per day.

Nitish said work is in progress on 15 more Ethanol plants at different places in Bihar, including Bhojpur and Gopalganj districts.

Ethanol is one of the principal biofuels, which is naturally produced by the fermentation of sugars by yeasts or via petrochemical processes such as ethylene hydration. It has medical applications as an antiseptic and disinfectant. It is used as a chemical solvent and in the synthesis of organic compounds, apart from being an alternative fuel source.

The Union Government has been promoting the use of ethanol as a blend stock with main automotive fuel like petrol in line with the National Policy on Biofuels - 2018 under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme. 

Under this programme, an indicative target of 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol by 2030 was laid out. Subsequently, the target year for achieving 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol was also advanced to 2025.

Bihar Government had launched Ethanol Production Promotion Policy in March 2021, and it claims that it is the first state in the country to have its own Ethanol promotion policy under National Policy of Biofuels, 2018. Bihar’s ethanol policy has allowed extraction of Ethanol from surplus maize, which was earlier limited only to sugarcane.

After the change in policy, Bihar got 152 proposals to set the Ethanol units. However, the Centre approved only 17 proposals.

An ethanol plant at Ara with a capacity of 5 lakh litres per day is ready for inauguration. It will be the second largest Ethanol plant in Asia. Besides, work is going on for commissioning of two plants each in Gopalganj and Nalanda districts and one in Bhagalpur.

Owing to increase in production of Ethanol, Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have achieved over 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol during Ethanol Supply Year 2021-22.

Government has been implementing the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme wherein OMCs sell petrol blended with ethanol up to 10 per cent. This programme has been extended to the whole of India except Union Territories of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands with effect from 01st April, 2019 to promote the use of alternative and environment friendly fuels. This intervention also seeks to reduce import dependence for energy requirements and give a boost to the agriculture sector. /BI/