Excess rice in central godowns will be converted into ethanol to make hand sanitizers and will also be added to petrol to reduce emissions, the government said on Tuesday(21/04/2020).
Quoting the National Policy on Biofuels, which allows the conversion of surplus foodgrain into ethanol, the government said the decision was taken at a meeting of NBCC (National Biofuel Coordination Committee) chaired by Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
“The meeting of NBCC was held on Tuesday (under the Chairmanship of the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan), wherein it was approved that the surplus rice available with FCI may be converted to ethanol for utilization in making alcohol-based hand-sanitizers and in blending for Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) program,” the petroleum ministry said in a statement.
Minister P&NG Shri @dpradhanbjp held a meeting of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee, abiding by the norms of social distancing.
Shri Pradhan discussed ways in which the biofuel industry can assist the country in stepping-up the fight against #Covid19. pic.twitter.com/d148bERDlr
— Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (@PetroleumMin) April 20, 2020
National Policy on Biofuels, 2018 envisages that during an agriculture crop year when there is projected oversupply of food grains, the policy will allow conversion of these surplus quantities of food grains to ethanol, based on the approval of the NBCC, it added.
According to official data, the government has a total of 58.49 million tonnes of foodgrains in the FCI godowns. Out of this, rice is 30.97 million tonnes and wheat 27.52 million tonnes.
The foodgrain stock is much higher than the required norm of maintaining a reserve of about 21 million tonnes as on April 1.
Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the government is supplying 5 kg of foodgrains per month to over 80 crore people at a highly subsidized price of ₹2-3 per kg.
Recently, the government allowed sugar companies and distilleries to make hand sanitizers using ethanol. Sugar companies supply ethanol to oil marketing companies for blending with petrol.
Sugar industry body had said last week said that a majority of sugar companies decided to make hand sanitizers to supply to hospitals and institutions by using a part of the ethanol/ENA production.
“Some of them are supplying the sanitizers at cost price or even free of cost. With the State Excise Department and State Drug Controllers giving full cooperation, this new segment of production of hand sanitizers has been successfully launched very quickly by most of the sugar companies,” ISMA added.
