Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), the country’s second largest public sector oil marketing company (OMC), is rapidly expanding capacity in the green energy space. The company has taken the lead in promoting cleaner vehicle fuels like ethanol and charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs), a top BCPL executive said. 

According to P.S. Ravi, Executive Director of BPCL, the Mumbai-headquartered energy major has already set up 85 EV fast-charging corridors across the country—each covering 1,000 km of roads through its multiple fuel stations on the respective routes. “These currently cover 85,000 km,” said Ravi in a presentation at an event in New Delhi, organised by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). 

In its bid to establish BPCL at the forefront of clean energy initiatives, BPCL now plans to expand the number of such corridors to 250 by March 2024, he said. 

Additionally, to bring down the use of petroleum-based fossil fuels that emit high quantities of harmful gases like carbon dioxide, the Union government has been pushing for higher ethanol blending in retail fuels like petrol. According to Ravi, BPCL is expanding its ethanol production capacity rapidly.  

“While currently we have 5 billion litres of ethanol production capacity per year, the demand is for about 10 billion litres. So, we have already begun to set up new plants that will together add at least 7.5 billion litres per year capacity. These will take our total ethanol production capacity to 12.5-13 billion litres,” he said. 

Data shows that ethanol blending in India has risen sharply since 2019-20. From about 5 per cent ethanol blending in fossil fuels in 2019-20, the share has risen to 11.7 per cent in 2022-23. In the past 10 years, the increase in ethanol production has been in the tune of 1,100 per cent (over 2013-14). As a result, the 10 per cent ethanol blending target, set for November 2022, was achieved in June, 2022, he said.