Gasohol

What is it?
Gasohol = Gasoline (Petrol etc.) + Ethanol

What are the advantages in shifting to Gasohol?

1. Reduce our dependency on Petrol etc. --> Less import --> Forex -> Diplomacy etc.
2. Much cleaner fuel (emits 30% less CO) -> Clean air -> Reduced health issues etc.
3. use of sugarcane by-product --> increased profitability of sugarcane --> Rural Prosperity
4. can be used with no modifications to the vehicles' engine (if ethanol is less than 10% in composition)
5. cheaper to manufacture and India is also 4th largest producer of ethanol
6. cleans car engine time to time by dissolving harmful dirt and deposites from chambers and pipes.

What are the disadvantages in shifting to Gasohol?

1. Shift the cultivation pattern towards cash crops --> Food security etc [2 counter arguments to this]
2. not exactly eco-friendly [why?]

What are the problems in shifting to Ethanol blended petrol then?

1. Ethanol is produced from Molasses, a by-product of sugarcane.
2. At present, govt has mandated that oil companies should not charge more than 27 per liter for ethanol in order to mix that with petrol.
3. Sale of Molasses to breweries is more profitable than to sale to oil companies.
4. So, oil companies might have to import ethanol if 5% blending will become mandatory, making petrol dearer in the retail trade.