Out of the 514 crore liters of ethanol contracted for the ethanol supply year (ESY) 2022-23, 233 crore liters had been delivered to oil marketing companies as of April 30. This allowed them to increase the blending to 11.65 percent from 10% during the same period last year. In the present ESY, a 12% ethanol blend with petrol is the goal.
Except for Tamil Nadu, where sugar crushing is practically finished, distilleries will now use molasses that have been saved for the off-season to make ethanol. An industry official stated that the opportunity for making ethanol from sugarcane juice is now closed, adding that this is a success despite a decline in the sugar supply. According to reports, the OMCs have agreements to purchase 140 crore liters from grain-based factories and 374 crore liters from distilleries based on sugar.
One tonne of sugarcane, when processed straight from the juice, gives roughly 70 to 75 liters of ethanol, whereas one tonne of B-Heavy Molasses yields about 320 liters of biofuel. It will continue for 11 months, from December to October, as a transition for the current year, and the blending of 12% must be completed by October 31.
According to the cooperative sector sugar industry association, UP produced 101.9 lt of sugar at a recovery rate of 9.65 percent so far, Maharashtra produced 105.3 lt at a recovery rate of 10%, while Karnataka produced 55.5 lt at a recovery rate of 10.10 percent.
The government-set fair and remunerative price (FRP) of sugarcane is based on a recovery rate of 10.25 percent, although the recovery rate for all of India as of yet was 9.87 percent, down from 10.07 percent a year ago.
