India has suddenly been thrust into the cooking gas (LPG) crisis because of the war on Iran. India imports about 20 million tons of LPG every year from West Asia.  This is nearly 60% of its yearly LPG usage and shows how heavily dependent India is on imports of this essential commodity. 

Since last many years India has been producing a large amount of ethanol for use in cars. One can survive without cars, but we cannot survive without eating and presently LPG is the most important fuel for cooking.  Hence there is a need to find an alternative to it.

An Excellent Fuel 

Ethanol is an excellent fuel for cooking and has a long history of its use for this purpose since early 1900s in Europe and America. With its huge production in India it can become self- sufficient in cooking fuel.

The Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) pioneered ethanol as a cooking and lighting fuel in early 1980s and 90s. Our work on ethanol stove started in early 1980s.  We were the first Institute in India to use solar energy to distill ethanol.  The ethanol produced was 40-45% (v/v) concentration. We then started working on how to use this low-grade ethanol for cooking since it provided an excellent substitute for polluting kerosene fuel. The stove used free surface combustion of ethanol and was our first alcohol stove. It was very inefficient but produced useful heat for cooking.

We then continued working on this stove and developed a very efficient low grade ethanol stove shown in the photograph. This was the first low grade (50% v/v ethanol-water mixture) ethanol stove anywhere in the world.

We later on combined this stove with a lantern to produce a lanstove which not only produced excellent light (equivalent to 100 W bulb) in such low-grade ethanol but also cooked a complete meal for a family of five.  This lanstove was given the Globe Award in Sweden in 2009 by Crown Princess Victoria. The other awardee was Tesla Motors !

The low-grade ethanol work was done because it could easily be produced in any distillation unit in rural areas. It required less energy and was cheaper to produce then the anhydrous alcohol presently used in cars.   

However, because of stringent excise department laws the program did not take off in India. The excise laws do not allow the storage and use of ethanol (or its mixture) for household uses.

Nevertheless, our work inspired efforts in Latin American and African countries, and we are proud of our contribution to the science and technology of ethanol-based cooking and lighting in the world.

India’s Ethanol Production 

India produces about 2000 crore liters of ethanol every year. With present trends this number will probably increase to 10,000 crore liters per year by 2030.

Use of ethanol for cars is a very wasteful process.  Internal combustion engine (ICE) technology-based cars are very inefficient load carrying vehicles and in Indian road and traffic conditions (poor roads and slow-moving traffic) they become even more inefficient. And thus, the use of ethanol in cars for such road conditions is a waste of an important chemical, in addition to the harm it is expected to cause to the car engine components. Also, very scant or no data exist regarding whether this use of ethanol blends in cars has made any dent in urban pollution control.  

If this much ethanol can be used as a cooking fuel, then it can take care of 50% of all our present LPG imports.  Ethanol calorific value is ~ 63% of that of LPG. Hence more ethanol will be used to compensate for the LPG usage.

If the excise restrictions are removed for producing and storing ethanol for household uses, then the local people and farmers can produce ethanol from large number of different raw materials like sweet sorghum or any other sugar and starch bearing crop. This can increase the ethanol production and can almost make us self-sufficient in cooking fuel. Nevertheless, appropriate policies are needed to produce ethanol in an environmentally friendly manner.  

However, the cost of ethanol remains a major issue.  Presently the energy cost of LPG to consumers is Rs. 1.5/MJ.  This number was generated by calculating the cost of gas and dividing by its calorific value. In comparison, the energy cost of ethanol to the consumers will be Rs. 3/MJ or almost double the cost of LPG. This is based on the present cost of ethanol that the GOI has fixed for the purchase of ethanol. This difference is because of the heavy subsidy for LPG that is given presently.  

Nevertheless, ethanol is a homegrown, renewable fuel which can being great advantage to the country, increase the remuneration to the farmers and help in expanding industrial crop production base in India.

There will always be issues about its diversion for human consumption but with denaturation and other additives added to it can be made unfit for drinking so that it can be used only as cooking fuel.

 What Needs to be Done

Remove stringent excise laws or modify them so that ethanol and its additives can be used as a household fuel.    

Encourage R&D in alcohol stove and delivery system so that it becomes  seamless and easy to use.

Providing appropriate incentives to the farmers and ethanol producing industry so that India becomes self-sufficient in cooking fuel.

(The writer, an IIT and US-educated Indian spiritual engineer and rural development pioneer,  a 2022 Padma Shri award winner, is the Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), Phaltan, Maharashtra.  He can be reached at anilrajvanshi50@gmail.com/@anilraj24.bsky.social)