In this newsletter we would like to share the key findings and recommendations of a detailed scientific report on “Enhancing India’s biofuels programme: Examining the role of Oxyfuels in India’s Clean Fuel transition”, which has been conducted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) of India, in cooperation with the Asian Clean Fuels Association (ACFA). The report was initially released in 2023 and revised and updated in 2024.
TERI is an independent, not-for-profit, knowledge-driven institute dedicated to advancing transition towards a cleaner and sustainable future in India. Founded 50 years ago, TERI has shown unparalleled dedication to multidisciplinary research, advocacy, and development of policies and technologies in energy, energy efficiency transitions, sustainable agriculture, eco-friendly transportation, sustainable development, efficient building practices, and climate action.
Advising India’s government, TERI is committed to undertaking rigorous, relevant, and objective research towards improved decision making in the areas of energy, environment, and natural resources.
Lead author of this report is Dr Piyali Das, Director-General and Senior Fellow at TERI. This report is the outcome of the study “Examining the Feasibility of Adopting Advanced Biofuels like MTBE and ETBE in India: Challenges and Opportunities”, conducted by Dr Piyali Das and her research team at the institute.
Executive Summary
The non-biased, scientific report is fact-based and clearly highlights the benefits of considering the introduction of ethers with the ethanol blending target in India. The inclusion and co-existence of other oxyfuels (MTBE, ETBE, TAME) will allow Indian refineries to ramp up production of ethers to meet domestic and export demand. India may face domestic supply challenges and lose out on substantial export opportunities if the country does not secure adequate supply of higher RON, clean fuel components in the next 3–5 years. For the medium- to long-term perspective, the country’s biofuel policy should support advanced R&D for scaling and commercialization of renewable ETBE and bio-MTBE production technology innovation. Fuel ethers are an important, complementary and supportive gasoline blending component to help achieve fuel ethanol success and accelerate the process of reducing emission in the transport sector.
Introduction:
In the global fight against climate change, India has taken an aggressive step in recent years by committing to reach its net-zero targets by 2070 and meeting 50% of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030. Being the third-largest user of automobiles in the world, India’s dependence on fossil fuels for transport energy is relatively high (70%). To counter this dependence and achieve net-zero goals, collaborative policy measures that are in sync with the steps taken by the government to improve India’s carbon neutrality are needed. Aligned with this, Prime Minister Modi has also emphasized ‘fuels of the future’, including the expansion of alternate fuels such as green hydrogen.
Biofuels have emerged as a viable way to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, through the expansion of the Ethanol Economy, and promotion of Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme (E20) preponed from 2030 to 2025. However, this approach presents some latent challenges, including issues related to food security, environmental impact, infrastructural challenges, and scalability. The Government of India has also announced that from April 2020 onwards, all vehicles sold in India must comply with Bharat Stage VI Emission Standards, notably for making improvements in three principal areas—emission control, fuel efficiency, and engine design.
With the success of the Ethanol Blending Programme, the Government of India can expand its portfolio of other new alternative fuel blends such as green hydrogen and fuel ethers. Fuel ethers such as ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), also colloquially referred to as ‘easily to blend with ethanol’, and methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), are efficient fuel components which enable cleaner burning of petrol in engines. In India, the most significant advantages of ethers include the following:
Given these considerations, the report is an assessment of ETBE, MTBE group of oxygenates/ethers from supply and demand, environmental, economic and technical perspectives. It serves as a baseline for further assessment towards “Enhancing India’s Biofuels Programme - Co-blending of ethanol and ETBE”, the benefits of which will lead to an upgrade in fuel quality, facilitating the alignment to gasoline trade flows (no niche markets). It will also help to meet India’s higher RON aspirations, increasing efficiency in transportation.
Key findings and recommendations
The detailed TERI report summarizes the key findings and recommendations as follows:
Key actions required from policy perspective
India is poised to move forward in the technology curve with newer engines, higher efficiency but less use of petroleum gasoline. India has already introduced CAFÉ-1 regulation in 2018 and CAFÉ 2 in April 2022 towards increasing fuel and lowering CO2 emission to 113 g/km. The introduction of ether co-blending in India’s biofuel policy can significantly benefit the air quality and reduce the associated issues and challenges of higher blending of ethanol.
To implement these recommendations, the report highlights some policy changes deemed necessary:
Conclusion
Dr Piyali Das summarized the key findings of the report as follows:
The report referred to the valuable input from numerous round table discussions with various stakeholders, which led to the need to take additional measures for the next phase of work:
The project identified that there is a need to explore complementary strategies towards achieving India’s E20 mandate given the challenge of on-ground ethanol production on a continuous basis. The standardization of fuel properties and blending percentages are seen as a key requirements. For a price sensitive market like India, a cost analysis of higher octane fuels will need to be conducted. Beyond this, a scope assessment for ethers capacity is needed to evaluate how much India can produce domestically. An economic study of the life cycle assessment of the cost of production of ethers should be also be considered as the next step for the development of a white paper.
The report suggests to develop a roadmap to encourage the collaboration among stakeholders and carry out pilot projects to demonstrate the benefits of ethers, tailored specifically to Indian refining and fuel quality conditions.
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