Resource detail

If India were to depend exclusively on sugarcane molasses for producing ethanol to meet its 2030 goal of 20 per cent blending, it may need to produce an additional 1,320 million tonnes (mt) of sugarcane, requiring 348 billion cubic metres of water and 19 million hectares of land, according to a study. If molasses are used to meet this target requiring a production of 20 billion litres (bl) of bioethanol it would require additional water and land resources, nearly four times more than the current, and would result in production of extra sugar of 161 mt, said the study published recently by a team of researchers from Stanford University in the journal Environmental Research Letters.