[TusharK]

Indian Oil and two domestic engine manufacturers are said to be working on 5% ethanol blending in diesel.



According to SSV Ramakumar, Director (R&D), Indian Oil Corporation, research on ethanol blended diesel is currently ongoing at laboratories and R&D centres of two engine manufacturers.

Ramakumar added that ethanol-blended diesel might cause some issues with the fuel injectors. Therefore, experiments are being carried out to see the effects of ethanol-blended diesel on engine components.

Diesel is the primary fuel used in the transportation sector. Ethanol blending is expected to reduce our dependence on crude oil imports, as ethanol can be produced locally through natural sources.

At present, petrol sold in India consists of 10% ethanol. The government aims to raise this to 20% by 2025. Ramakumar said that studies for the introduction of E20 fuel in existing vehicles are almost complete, while long-duration endurance trials are likely to be completed by July 2023.

Source: ET Auto

Link to Team-BHP News

[ComboCutter]

This is a worrying trend of taking measures that are one-sided without passing any of the cost benefit to the other side.

Oil Prices have decreased from ~112$ to ~75$ between June 2022 and now. But consumers are still paying the same price since May 2022.

Oil Marketing Companies are also being "Rewarded" for Processing cheap oil from Russia. Their E20 study results when it comes should be taken with a pinch of salt since it will be heavily biased.

Car Manufacturers are happy because they get to sell more cars and increased maintenance revenue

End consumer is burdened with the aftermath of such one-sided decisions, having to replace their newer vehicles sooner or increased maintenance with reduced performance.

[Bibendum90949]

In other words, the final nails in the coffins of diesel vehicles are in the works. They're claiming that the long term tests are being carried out, but how long is this "long- term"? That's the moot point. Testing it randomly on couple of engines doesn't mean there can be a blanket application on all engines. Testing it on every engine isn't practical either. End of the day, we the tax paying public and car owners are going to bear the brunt. So all diesel car lovers, do enjoy them while it lasts .

Even BPCL is also on a similar exercise.
https://indianexpress.com/article/bu...-8635627/lite/

[raghu67]

I am not 100% sure if this is the exact reason.
My ford fiesta tdci 2011 diesel injectors got blocked and the car went into limp mode after filling green diesel from Indian oil pump at hi-tech City Hyderabad.
Replacing injector bodies costed me 20k when I got it done from local mechanic
Ford service centre at Bala Nagar said all the 4 injectors have to be replaced. I don't exactly remember the cost quoted by Ford service, but it was very high.

[el lobo 6061]

India, the world's second largest importer of oil, used approximately 76.7 million metric tons per annum (MMTPA) of diesel during FY21, which is three times that of gasoline.

Source: Autocar article "India’s oil majors readying for ethanol-blended diesel rollout, field trials underway"

So it makes sense for govt to blend diesel with ethanol to save onto outflow of foreign exchange.

Petrol with E20 ethanol on target for 01 April 2025 Pan India; the excess ethanol available will start blending with diesel.

Now even diesel car owners have a reason to worry in future.

How will ethanol affect BS4 & BS6 Diesel cars?

Originally Posted by raghu67

I am not 100% sure if this is the exact reason.
My ford fiesta tdci 2011 diesel injectors got blocked and the car went into limp mode after filling green diesel from Indian oil pump at hi-tech City Hyderabad.

That will be Indian Oil XtraGreen Diesel which has 7% Bio-Diesel B7 content. Your car is not compatible with B7 and that would have caused the issue.

[GrammarNazi]

Ethanol blending is expected to reduce our dependence on crude oil imports, as ethanol can be produced locally through natural sources.

This mindless obsession of harming common citizens by damaging their property, in the name of saving foreign exchange & reducing pollution MUST stop.

There are PLENTY other sensible, meritorious, reasonable and most importantly easy ways to keep a check on expenses in foreign exchange.

In the past 5-6 years, more HNI & UHNI Indians than ever have immigrated away from the country. Find out why & resolve the issues - Capital outflow will reduce & save us foreign exchange. Fix the education system & reservation policy in India. Fix tourism in India with sensible targeted de-regulations in tourist locations.

Even a lay-person like me can see that there are MANY such necessary changes possible such that people will immigrate far less & it'll save foreign exchange.

There are also many many better ways to reduce air pollution rather than to go all out with E20 Petrol (which will surely harm fuel systems of old petrol vehicles) & threaten to accept nonsensical proposals that suggest an effective ban on Diesels across (effectively) all cities in India! (Recently, before state elections, the Karnataka state Govt extended the lease of 2 golf grounds within Bangalore City, for a further 33 years for a rent that's measly 2% of revenue generated at it's restaurants, instead of converting them into green lung-space botanical gardens - in return it was found that ~180 ad-hoc new memberships were given for the golf clubs where the wait is easily many decades).

*sigh*

[/End Rant]

[Dr ST]

Dear all,
What an irony. In 5 years all the vehicles on the road will be drunk (ethanol is an alcohol), but the drivers are allowed only touchings. Only two parties are going to suffer in the long run:

1) Mother Earth due to pollution and underground water depletion
2) Vehicle owners who will have to live with repair bills

Let common sense prevail.

Regards

[Bhokal]

Are we overreacting? It is not going to be introduced tomorrow or next year. They are only conducting research, it is still a long way to go.

[epiccross]

Originally Posted by Bhokal

Are we overreacting? It is not going to be introduced tomorrow or next year. They are only conducting research, it is still a long way to go.

Given the vested interests with respect to ethanol production, I'm afraid this kind of nonsensical moves could be fast tracked and implemented real fast. People are already worried about E20 rollout, and now this.

[DetectiveMiles]

One Q, How is this different from ExtraGreen Diesel from IndianOil. I was thinking it is also blended Diesel.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ies-india.html (IndianOil rolls out green fuel "XtraGreen" at 126 Fuel Stations across 63 cities in India)

[enj0y_ride]

The real problem with the implementation is that , public is kept in dark. Govt announced that we achieved 10% Ethanol blending in Petrol only after it happened. So if 2025 is the target for E5 diesel, we can assume they will start gradual blending by atleast 2023 late and make E5 diesel announcement by 2025.

I own a petrol car. If given a choice with slightly higher cost, I will opt for E5 petrol. I feel they should make that option available for customers. Ideally cost for E5 petrol shouldnt increase, but E20 or E5 diesel should be offered at discounted rates.

[antz.bin]

Originally Posted by DetectiveMiles

One Q, How is this different from ExtraGreen Diesel from IndianOil. I was thinking it is also blended Diesel.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ies-india.html (IndianOil rolls out green fuel "XtraGreen" at 126 Fuel Stations across 63 cities in India)

XtraGreen is 7% BioDiesel Blend. And it actually does do what it says (increased mileage).

But it is good only for vehicles that are B7 compliant.

Also I think Jio BP (Reliance) is also doing some kind of blending. They are selling Diesel at Re.1 below PSU pricing in the area and also claiming similar benefits as XtraGreen. Can't comment on anything else since I have filled it up for the first time.

As I write this, I realise that BioDiesel is not the same as Ethanol. Why are they blending Ethanol and not BioDiesel?

Coming back to topic, I definitely do not agree with this kind of forced sale of blended fuels to users whose machines cannot safely consume it. I still remember when E10 was mandated and the FE of my bike which was not E10 compliant dropped 10% just like that! It was as if it was getting 900ml of petrol to use and it rejected the remaining 100ml of Ethanol as if it was unusable. The he govt could have saved the same amount of foreign exchange by not bothering with Ethanol and just giving me the 900ml of petrol. At least I would have got better tank range on the pure 900ml/liter petrol.

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by ComboCutter

This is a worrying trend of taking measures that are one-sided without passing any of the cost benefit to the other side.

Oil Prices have decreased from ~112$ to ~75$ between June 2022 and now. But consumers are still paying the same price since May 2022.

End consumer is burdened with the aftermath of such one-sided decisions, having to replace their newer vehicles sooner or increased maintenance with reduced performance.

Regarding oil product prices, the high price we pay should be used somewhere ? The road infra projects themselves are huge with big investments and maybe its being spent there. That is what I think could be happening
They are extracting toll again from us but initial investments are huge.

[epiccross]

Originally Posted by PreludeSH

They are extracting toll again from us but initial investments are huge.

Tolls itself may cover for it considering the sheer volume of vehicles, vehicle taxes here are crazy high as it is to top all that - 28% approx, if I'm not wrong is the GST and add to that the fairly arbitrary rules like <1.5L engines <4m rules for further taxation. Can't emphasize on how much taxes we're paying on cars, and on top of that us having to basically scrap vehicles after 10-15 years.

At the very least they should let us use whatever we've bought till end of life without any issues, these kind of rollouts do not help with that. Ethanol is corrosive and water soluble, I don't think this helps with the longevity of our cars.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by Dr ST

...
2) Vehicle owners who will have to live with repair bills

There is a solution. Buy EV.

Originally Posted by Bhokal

Are we overreacting? It is not going to be introduced tomorrow or next year.

So, next to next year is very far off? You can junk a car you buy today, after two years? I can't afford to change cars every two years. I'm sure most can't.

Originally Posted by antz.bin

The he govt could have saved the same amount of foreign exchange by not bothering with Ethanol and just giving me the 900ml of petrol. At least I would have got better tank range on the pure 900ml/liter petrol.

That honours is done by some pump owners by calibrating their dispensers. So, you pay for 1 litre pure petrol. E10 (Govt) knocks off 100 ml without giving you benefit of one paisa on price. Then some pump guys do their own adulteration AND short delivery on quantity. We probably get only 700-750 ml of petrol in some pumps because of several steps of dilution.