Bioethanol blending in aviation fuel

Subject – Environment

Context – ‘Bioethanol can be reliable aviation fuel’

Concept –

Bioethanol can be a sustainable fuel for the aviation sector.
It can provide 80% savings on greenhouse gas emissions and be blended up to 50% with conventional jet fuels without any modification. It has already been tested and approved by the Indian Air Force.
With the roll out of flex-fuel vehicles that run 100% on bioethanol, the demand for ethanol will jump four to five times.
Brazil, under its Air Force programme, is adding 50 per cent ethanol in aviation fuel and India will communicate with the authorities of the concerned department.
As per the study conducted by Indian Oil Corporation, the existing vehicles running on Indian roads currently can take up to 13 per cent ethanol-blended petrol without any modification in the engine and any loss in its efficiency.
Accordingly, the government has fixed BIS standards for E12 and E15, which will be slowly rolled out over the next couple of years to move from the 10 per cent blending expected to be achieved in 2022 to 20 per cent blending by 2025.

To know more about Bioethanol (aka ethanol or ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH)), please click here.