[Aditya]

Big shoutout to Chetan_Rao for shooting these pictures & his coverage of the Auto Expo. Thanks for sharing!

The Auto Expo was host to the Ethanol Pavilion towards the promotion of ethanol and its blends in the automotive sector:


Important information about technological advancements in the field, regulations, and public policies were on display:


Big names in the petroleum industry had their stalls set up inside the Ethanol Pavilion:

[Aditya]

One of the interesting stalls in the pavilion was from the U.S. Grains Council:


This display shows the difference in prices of fuel with the addition of % of ethanol. There will be cost benefits to moving toward flex fuel as the government has been saying. Only time will tell how much of that benefit is passed on to the consumers:


They also had refueling solutions with the underground. This slide displays the various components involved in the underground storage of fuels:


This is more in context with the US market where most places have self refueling. In cases where someone forgets to remove the nozzle and drives off, these systems activate the cutoff in time:


The stall also had this EFLEXPLUS device on display. This is essentially a conversion kit for petrol engines to run on E85 fuel:


Do note that this is a simple conversion kit for older cars. It does not include a full full-fledged modification of the engine components:


It includes an ethanol sensor that sits at the intake and tells the ECU about the blend percentage:


This is the actual piggyback ECU that modifies the specific operations of the engine to work with the ethanol blend:

[Aditya]

The pavilion also had a Toyota Corolla Altis on display that runs on flex fuel:


This Corolla can operate on a flex-fuel range of E20-E85. This means that the ethanol blend can be from 20 percent to 85 percent on this car. In India, we currently have 10 percent ethanol:


Here’s a look at the technical specifications of the Flex Fuel Toyota Corolla Altis:


There was also a Flex Fuel Maruti WagonR prototype on display:


This car was similar to the one that we’d seen in the Maruti stall:


Here’s a look at the technical specifications of the Flex Fuel WagonR:

[Aditya]

Also on display were some motorcycles. Here’s a Yamaha Fazer FZ15 (Brazil Spec):


It gets a Blue Flex badge:


Here’s a look at the technical specifications of the Fazer FZ15:


This is a TVS Apache RTR 1604V with a flex-fuel compatible engine. We’ve seen an ethanol version of the RTR 200 Fi at the Auto Expo 2018 too:


Technical specifications of the RTR 160:


Here’s a Pulsar NS 160 and its technical specifications:




A Hero Glamour Xtec with its technical specifications:




This is a Honda XRE 300 Rally:




A Suzuki Gixxer Flex Fuel prototype:

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line.

[Shreyans_Jain]

It is heartening to see that these pavilions playing host to entrenched and well funded lobbies are devoid of people. Too bad that we as customers have zero say in the kind of fuels we buy. At the end of the day, ethanol blending is just a fancy term for adulteration.

[DarthVeda]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

At the end of the day, ethanol blending is just a fancy term for adulteration.

What if we had the same for milk where we says 10% water additional but for the same price! that's how ridiculous this ethanol mix is. At least, reduce the price by the % of ethanol mixed.

[Chetan_Rao]

Personal opinion on ethanol blending aside, given how hard the govt. is pushing the policy, I expected the pavilion to be a lot more interactive and engaging. Talk about the environmental benefits, the lower prices (let's see if we see any at the pump!), reduced import dependence. Get people interested, on board.

In reality, it was wall-to-wall text blow-ups, barely interested stall staff and pretty much nothing to pique a visitor's interest.

Even the slogans were variations of the same few words: We create the solution, we develop the solution, we distribute the solution, we deliver the solution, we're part of the solution. Must have had a lucky draw to decide who got to use which one.

The only tiny bit of interest was the piggyback ECU plug-in to make existing cars E20 compatible. At least made an effort, and had something to demonstrate.

Overall, huge

[ardwivedi16]

Originally Posted by DarthVeda

At least, reduce the price by the % of ethanol mixed.

I couldn't agree with this more. They have already gone past 11% ethanol in fuel which is already going higher than many vehicles max Ethanol rating. Yet, The prices have not gone down even 10 rupees for the reduced fuel economy we have been getting due to Ethanol Blending

[anjan_c2007]

The grim and desolate scenario at this pavilion that depicts the non stop nonsense emanating from policy makers, who totally lack education in basic science, rudimentary petroleum chemistry and also organic chemistry. But they are great businessmen functioning under a proprietary ambiance, wherein their diktat is supreme. The concerned government departments have been given targets for publicity and adequate media coverage for the obnoxious brews that have been prepared by humpty dumpty, spin doctors. As their jobs are at stake they are coerced to publicise the illicit brew.

It's like forcing down some obnoxious and deadly medicines down a child's throat. The child has no other means to protest other than wail and cry for such coercion.

[Sumedik]

Will that conversion kit prevent engine damage? If not then what is the use?

[volkman10]

Effect of flex fuel:

sugar prices can go up to 30 cents & India's bio-fuel blending mandate may make it difficult to export significant quantity of sugar

Link