Indian ethanol producers have cited the ongoing ‘ethanol cooking’ promotion programmes in several African countries as models that can be emulated to help the country reduce its import dependency on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

The suggestion comes at a time when disruptions in the Gulf region has slowed down transit of LPG through the Strait of Hormuz, the key supply route through which 90% of India’s LPG imports happen. India imports almost 60% of its 34 million tonnes of annual LPG requirement.

In a white paper on ‘ethanol based cooking solutions’, Indian Sugar & Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) highlighted Tanzania’s Ethanol Stove Programme that aims to install 110,000 ethanol stoves in that country’s households as one of the examples of this transition.

What is Project Gaia

Ethiopia’s Project Gaia which aims to supply 200,000 plus stoves, Kenya’s ethanol market model approach that aims to help about 1.5 million households move away from charcoal and firewood based cooking and West Africa Ethanol Stove Programme that looks at having 500,000 ethanol + solar stoves in Mali and Nigerian households have also been mentioned to illustrate how refill based distribution systems can offer a locally available alternate cooking fuel instead of LPG.

According to ISMA, ethanol is a practical and scalable cooking fuel that produces a clean blue flame, similar to LPG. The stove performance is also comparable with 1.5 to 3 kw  heat output.

$24 billion savings projected from clean cooking transition

The white paper quotes a recent report by International Institute for Sustainable Development to suggest that transitioning to ethanol cooking and biogas could save India over $24 billion in cumulative LPG subsidies by 2050. A 20% substitution from LPG to ethanol could reduce LPG demand by 6 million tonnes annually, it says.

ISMA wants the government to try out deployment of ethanol cooking solutions in rural and low-income households as an affordable,  pay-as-you-go alternate to LPG. Street vendors and small businesses, community and institutional kitchens, remote and hilly regions, urban informal settlements, migrant and transient populations, disaster and emergency response are all strategic deployment areas ethanol based cooking solutions, says the white paper.

The association wants the government to notify ethanol as an approved clean cooking fuel within national energy frameworks and provide targeted incentives and support for ecosystem development.

“Ethanol based cooking is not just about replacing LPG. The next step is to make the system more resilient, flexible and future ready," the report says.