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Ethanol blended petrol to be tried out at Rajamundry
By A Business Correspondent
Rajamundry in Andhra Pradesh will be one of the six places in the country where the Centre has firmed up plans to try out ethanol blended petrol in the second phase. The exercise is part of the Centre's in-principle decision to allow the use of 5 per cent ethanol for blending with petrol throughout the country. The other five places where trials will be held are in Uttar Pradesh (Gonda, Kanpur and Najibabad) and two in Punjab (Pathankot and Bhatinda).
The 5 per cent ethanol blended fuel had already been implemented in three pilot projects, two in Maharashtra (Manmad and Miraj) and one in Uttar Pradesh (Bareilly). Efforts are being made to get the approval of the Bureau of Indian Standards to blend ethanol in petrol up to 10 per cent.
The Central government is providing $1.48 million for research in blending ethanol with gasoline and diesel fuel. Recently, the government gave a grant of $819,000 for an R&D study for using ethanol-diesel blends in vehicles. Another $663,000 has been provided for studying the possibility of blending gasoline with 10 per cent ethanol. Currently, it is allowed up to the level of 5 per cent. The studies will focus on using sugarcane molasses as feedstock for ethanol production.
(16/6/02)
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