A report filed with the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s Global Agricultural Information Network in February provides an update on India’s goal to install or upgrade nearly 200 grain-based ethanol production facilities and move to an E20 blend by 2025.

If realized, the installation or upgrade of the 200 grain-based ethanol facilities would potentially create an additional 8.59 billion liters (2.27 billion gallons) of annual ethanol production capacity, according to the report.

The GAIN report states that India achieved a record 8.1 precent ethanol blend rate in supply year 2021, with that increase largely propelled by the government’s November 2021 decision to divert stocks of extra neutral alcohol from potable liquor production toward ethanol.

To achieve India’s E20 goal by 2025, the country would need to produce approximately 11 billion liters of ethanol. As of November 2021, the report indicates that India’s concentrated ethanol production capacity was approximately 6 billion liters, with 88 percent that capacity using sugar and molasses feedstocks. The remaining capacity, approximately 750 million liters, is corn-based ethanol production. To reach its goals, the government is looking to boost India’s grain-based ethanol production capacity by approximately 5.5 billion liters.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded from the USDA FAS GAIN website.