Flex Fuel

In News

• India’s first ‘flex fuel’ developed car is set to launch soon.

About Flex Fuel Vehicle 

• It is a Toyota sedan that can run on one or multiple fuel types.
• Pilot Project: 
  • The pilot has been initiated as part of a government-led push to carmakers for adopting alternative fuels and the sedan.
  • It will be equipped with flex fuel tech.
  • Aim will be to replicate the commercial deployment of this particular technology in other markets such as Brazil, Canada and the US.

Image Courtesy: IE 

Flex fuel technology

• A flex fuel, or flexible fuel, vehicle has an internal combustion engine (ICE), but unlike a regular petrol or diesel vehicle, this can run on more than one type of fuel, or even a mixture of fuels. 
• The most common versions use a blend of petrol and ethanol or methanol, but these engines are also equipped to run on 100 percent petrol or ethanol as well. 
• This is made possible by equipping the engine with a fuel mix sensor and an engine control module (ECM) programming that senses and automatically adjusts for any ratio of designated fuels. 
• Benefit: 
  • The use of ethanol blending sharply lowers harmful pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulphur, and carbon and nitrogen oxides. 
  • The blending will help cutback on oil imports for fueling vehicles.
  • Countries such as Brazil have the ability to be flexible on the degree of the mix depending on the crude prices, varying it when energy prices surge. The precondition being that the vehicular fleet has been equipped to adjust to this fuel mix of varying degrees.
• Problems: 
  • A flex fuel car typically takes a small hit on fuel efficiency when using ethanol for motive power, ranging from between 4 percent and 8 percent. 
  • Crops such as sugarcane are usually very water-intensive. 
    • A NITI Aayog report suggested that in 2019-20, of the total ethanol produced in the country, over 90 percent came from sugarcane alone. 

Government Initiatives

• Currently, around 9.5 percent ethanol blending with petrol has been achieved in fuel dispensed in pumps in most metros and it is likely that the targeted 10 percent ethanol blending will be achieved by November 2022. 
• The government announced its 2025 target of 20 percent blending of ethanol in petrol envisaged in its National Biofuel Policy 2018.

Source: IE