Published on May 8, 2017

K Saraswat, key member of Niti Ayog said that the commission is focusing on drawing a roadmap for India to tap the full potential of the alternate fuel. Special committee has been set up on Methanol talks about the larger plan to structure the Methanol economy and ramp up its production and uptake. Target is to create basic awareness that methanol is the right (alternate) route as a fuel and that has been done in academic institutions, industry and even in the ministries. Methanol stores energy so you can use it as a fuel, as a chemical, as a feedstock, and also as a water cleaning agent. We want to ensure methanol becomes a major fuel so that we can reduce our import bill. If we can get at least 15 per cent addition of methanol in diesel and gasoline over a period of time, it will reduce our import bill by 15 per cent. Modification kits for the gasoline engines are already developed by many countries hence our transition will be with out any technology risk. We do not want to use natural gas because of its short supply but we will take stranded gas as it is available plenty.