Chasing Brazil’s biofuel dream: Can India drive on 100% ethanol?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: In 1973, Arab nations declared an embargo on oil production, leading to a global energy crisis. Prices quadrupled overnight. And some governments suddenly remembered ethanol.

Brazil took the lead by promoting ethanol production from sugarcane, mandating ethanol blending with petrol and finally introducing cars that can run on 100% ethanol. That was in 1979.While they may seem to be early movers, the Brazilians were not actually the first ones to go down that path. The idea of using ethanol as a fuel had been pursued since the 1820s, with limited success.

Henry Ford would then try to rewrite that script.Ford had famously asserted that he would build only one version of his Model T car, and that “any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black” because the paint was cheaper and more durable. While those words have gone on to become one of the best-known quotes in automotive history, the industrialist had shown himself to be far more flexible—ahead of his time even—on another front. Ford, who grew up on a farm, had a deep distrust for big oil companies, including John D.

Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. Because of this, the story goes, he designed the early Model T, which was launched in 1908, with an adjustable engine that could run on gasoline (petrol in India), ethanol, or a mix of both. Indeed, the very first automobile that Ford built, the Quadricycle of 1896, ran entirely on ethanol.Ford’s vision was radical for the time: farmers could grow their own corn and potatoes, ferment them and brew their own fuel to run tractors and cars.