New Delhi: Supporting India’s ethanol-blended E20 fuel program, renowned scientist and Padma Vibhushan awardee Dr. Raghunath Anant Mashelkar on Tuesday said that ethanol has proven to be a viable transport fuel globally and can play a key role in strengthening the country’s energy security.
Speaking to IANS, the former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) cited Brazil’s decades-long experience with ethanol-powered vehicles as evidence of the fuel’s viability.
Dr. Mashelkar, a chemical engineer and Fellow of the Royal Society, said, “Brazil has been running vehicles on ethanol for 30-40 years. This experience tells us that ethanol is a viable fuel.”
He said that increasing the use of ethanol and other indigenous fuels will help India reduce its dependence on imported crude oil and increase energy self-sufficiency. Referring to recent geopolitical tensions in West Asia, Dr. Mashelkar said that disruptions in global energy supplies highlight the need for India to rapidly adopt other domestically produced fuels.
He said, “We need self-reliance. We must produce our own fuel,” adding that dependence on imported energy leaves countries vulnerable to global conflicts and supply disruptions.
Expressing strong support for ethanol, Dr. Mashelkar said India should also develop other clean fuel options such as methanol, dimethyl ether, compressed biogas, and biomass-based green hydrogen.
“I’m not just talking about ethanol. We need to look at all these other fuels,” he told IANS.
He also stressed that biomass should become an essential feedstock for India’s clean energy transition.
He said, “The sun is shining, and biomass is produced from solar energy. Biomass should be our main feedstock to produce fuel.” Dr. Mashelkar said that degraded and semi-degraded land can be used to grow energy crops like Napier grass, which can produce compressed biogas and green hydrogen, without affecting land used for food production.
