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In India government has made it compulsory to add 20% ethanol in petrol which is used in cars and motorbikes. It is claimed by the government that blending of ethanol with fuel cleans the engine and also saves foreign currency paid to buy petroleum from other countries. It is also claimed that ethanol is cleaner and emits less harmful gases, thus saves environment.

It is true that India is a large importer of petroleum which requires paying to oil producing countries as India produces only about 15% of its oil requirement. Thus it saves foreign currency. Ethanol is also a cleaner fuel as burning of ethanol emits just CO2 and water. But it is really so good?

First of all ethanol has low calory value. Thus it reduces mileage of engine. Suppose if your car runs 15 kilometer in one liter petrol, than with E20 petrol (20% blended petrol) it can go only 12-13 kilometer in one liter. So, ethanol blended petrol reduces car engines capacity. It also catches water and water is harmful for car's engine. So, the owners have double loss. In one hand they had to pay more for the same amount of fuel, it also gives low mileage and also harmful for the engine. Ethanol production is also not much environment friendly. It is produced from sugarcane which requires a large chunk of agriculture land and needs water for irrigation.

Thus, ethanol blending is not very environment friendly and also harmful for the car owners. What do you think?