New Delhi [India], March 24 : Endeavours are being made in the country to explore ethanol as a potential substitute for LPG, with early-stage work underway on ethanol-based cooking solutions, even as the government looks to strengthen demand for the biofuel, the Union Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said on Tuesday.
"We have seen ethanol-based cooking stoves, which have been displayed as a rudimentary kind of a model," Sanjeev Chopra said on the sidelines of the AIDA Annual Distillers' Conclave 2025 held in the national capital. "In case there is a ramp up, then we need to ensure that the safety is assured, the availability is assured."
He said efforts are also being made to test supply logistics for such a transition. "We can probably do an experiment in the facility of the distilleries whereby the supply chain can be better and more easily established," he said, adding that the move is being explored, "particularly keeping in view the LPG issues which have come up in recent times."
The recent conflicts in the West Asian countries have restricted shipments to the country via the Strait of Hormuz, and a pinch of shortage is felt at the grassroot level in the country making prices soar in recent times.
However, Chopra said the work on ethanol as a cooking fuel substitute is still at a nascent stage. "So those studies are still going on. It is very early days," he said.
On the broader ethanol programme, he said supply capacity has kept pace with requirements from the oil sector. "The ethanol capacity has really kept pace with the requirements of the oil sector," he said. "We have only achieved a 30% blending and now the supply side constraints are no longer there."
He added that the focus is now shifting to boosting demand. "In the demand side now we need to see how we can also ensure adequate demand," he said. "It could be the blending percentage, it could be the blending with diesel or it could be the textile by-products."
"All these are options available for the government and the government will take a decision," he added.
On feedstock availability, Chopra said lower offtake of broken rice for ethanol is linked to allocation decisions by oil marketing companies. "So one has to see why the broken rice offtake is not there. Because of the lesser allocation by the oil marketing companies," he said.
"When the oil marketing companies will give higher allocation... that will ensure the demand will not be a constraint," he said, adding that a shift away from supplying Food Corporation of India rice towards broken rice could further support ethanol production.
Separately, he said the government is piloting improvements in rice quality under the Public Distribution System (PDS). "Now we have done a pilot this year where the rice that we are generating from the mill is having lesser broken percentage of 10% versus 25% which was there earlier," he said.
He said the pilot, conducted across five states, could be scaled up. "We are hoping that this particular pilot... we can ramp it up in due course whereby we will be able to supply better quality rice in the operations of the PDS," he said.
"The excess broken that we will generate can then be offered to the user industry," he added, referring to ethanol producers.
Chopra said the initiative is still under evaluation. "It is right now a pilot, we will be obtaining the various approvals required before we ramp it up all over the country," he said.