Why in news? Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the India Energy Week in Bengaluru

Highlights:

During the Indian Energy Week ,Prime minister launched following intiative

• A Pilot project for the E20 fuel a blend of 20% ethanol and 80% petrol . The first phase of the rollout will cover 15 cities within two years.
• Bengaluru is among the 15 cities across India that will get E20 fuel through outlets run by Indian Oil Corporation in the first phase
• As part of its sustainability and environment protection initiatives Indian Oil has also designed a patented indoor solar double burner cook-top, a hybrid solution that works on both solar and auxiliary energy sources
• Prime minister also launched the uniforms under the “Unbottled” intiative of Indian oil , which are made from recycled PET bottles

Indian Government initiatives for energy exploration

• National Green Hydrogen Mission, had set aside 1 lakh crore for green hydrogen.
• Country is taking lead in the green hydrogen space, and would replace grey hydrogen (created from natural gas, or methane, using steam methane reformation), to increase its share to 25% in the next five years.
• Government has announced ,10 lakh square kilometres of ‘no-go zones’ were freed for energy exploration
• In 2014, the length of the gas pipeline in India was around 14,000 kilometers, now it was over 22,000 km and the network was expected to cross 35,000 km in the next four to five years.
• Increasing domestic exploration and production, diversification of supplies, expansion of alternative energy sources like biofuels, ethanol, compressed biogas and solar, decarbonization through electric vehicles and hydrogen were the focus area

What Is Ethanol Blending?

• Ethyl alcohol and ethanol(CHH5OH) is a biofuel that is made naturally by fermenting sugar derived from sugarcane or other organic matter like food grains
• As part of its carbon reduction commitments, India has launched the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme to mix this biofuel with petrol to reduce the consumption of petrol
• India has already met its E10 target, so petrol used in the country has 10% ethanol in it.

What is environmental impact ?

• Vehicular emissions such as carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are currently under regulation in India, will decrease these emissions.
• Higher reductions in carbon monoxide emissions were observed with E20 fuel