NEW DELHI: The government is planning to more than double ethanol production and increase blending of ethanol with petrol to reduce oil imports.
Ethanol can be produced directly from cane juice as well as from B-grade and C-grade molasses. The price of ethanol from sugarcane juice has been fixed at Rs 59.48 per litre while ethanol extracted from C-grade molasses fetches Rs 43.75 a litre and that from B-grade molasses gets Rs 54.27 a litre. The official said the country needs at least 4.25 billion litres of ethanol to meet the 10% blending target.