The youth cooperator and the Chairman of Sahakar Maharshi Shankarrao Kolhe Cooperative Sugar Factory, Vivek Kolhe called upon on the central government to allow sugar cooperative factories engaged in ethanol business to make Ethyl tertiary-butyl Ether (ETBE) used as an anti-knocking agent for gasoline engines.
“At present the European countries are making ETBE from Ethanol but in India we are making Methyl tertiary-butyl Ether (MTBE) from methanol because it is cheap in price. As we are facing the problem of pollution in many cities like Mumbai, Delhi and others, the use of ETBE will help in curbing this to some extent”, said Kolhe while talking to this correspondent at his office at Kopargaon.
He demanded that the government should allow sugar co-operatives to export ETBE to European countries, as we see there is a huge demand. As the government put conditions on the companies to blend some quantity of ethanol with petrol and on the same line the conditions should be put for blending with ETBE, which improves the combustion characteristics of petrol.
Besides, Kolhe said, we are also coming up with an Ethanol fuel cooking stove in our Kopargaon taluka and the trail is going on. Interestingly, it is a good initiative of the Union Ministry of Cooperation and we are the channel partners as of now in Maharashtra.
“We intend to introduce ethanol dispensers at the retail stores, referred to as ‘Ethanol ATM’s, where locals can obtain canisters of ethanol for their stoves. In Kenya, Koko Networks dispensed ethanol for clean cooking. This initiative will reduce the dependence on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)”, said Kolhe whose grandfather Late Shankarrao Kolhe was the veteran cooperator of Maharashtra and the founder Chairman of sugar factory.