Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Ethanol-blended petrol yet to find acceptance

By Alladi Jayasri

BANGALORE Dec. 6. There is much to be said for popularising ethanol-blended fuel as a clean and green option. Yet, there is no initiative on the part of the authorities to launch a campaign.

Although ethanol has been regarded as an environmentally safe fuel-additive for nearly three-quarters of a century, there is no political will to popularise the use of fuels blended with alcohol in motor vehicles in the country. In the mid-1930s, alcohol-blended fuels were used in the city bus service in Bangalore as an experimental measure, owing to the vision of the then Dewan of Mysore, Sir Mirza Ismail.

Ethanol-blended petrol, which is being sold in the city for the past two months, is yet to find acceptance among vehicle owners. Some vehicles owners complain that it damages the engine. The complaint is being addressed only half-heartedly: the explanation given is that it is due to the presence of excess moisture in blended fuel. Petrol pump owners shrug the problem away by saying they sell what oil companies supply to them.

This is a good time to remind ourselves that the idea needs to be given a chance, sources in the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board say.

India was among the first countries to recognise the merits of using ethanol in diesel engines.

The bi-fuel system developed by the H.A. Havemann and his colleagues at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in the early 1950s, was the subject of the earliest original published work on alcohol-blended diesel.

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