Sweet sorghum may also be used feedstock for ethanol
The Indian government is studying sweet sorghum as an alternate feedstock for ethanol to diversify supplies beyond sugarcane, rice, and maize. Field trials were conducted in Maharashtra and Karnataka with the National Institute of Sugar, Indian Institute of Millet Research, and BPCL. Sweet sorghum’s viability will be assessed based on ethanol pricing.
The government is conducting a study to assess the feasibility of ‘sweet sorghum’ as an alternate feedstock for production of ethanol to diversify the raw material base for the biofuel, the food ministry said in Parliament on Wednesday.
Sweet sorghum as an additional feedstock for ethanol manufacturing would address the challenges in terms of sustained supplies of sugarcane, rice and maize for bio-fuels, officials said.
Diversifying Feedstock
Field trials for sweet sorghum as feedstock were recently conducted in the kharif season across two sugar factories in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The trails were conducted by National Institute of Sugar and Indian Institute of Millet Research in collaboration with Bharat Petroleum Corporation. Sources said further research for ensuring economic viability of sweet sorghum as feedstock would be carried out.
Experts said the viability of using sweet sorghum, an industrial crop for ethanol manufacturing will be done once a price is set for ethanol produced from the crop.
Last year the issue of using sweet sorghum as an additional feedstock was discussed in the Prime Minister Office amidst reports about the availability of sugarcane, rice and maize.
“Government is conducting a study for the feasibility of sweet sorghum as an alternate feedstock for production of ethanol to diversify the feedstock base for ethanol production,” the food ministry stated in Lok Sabha.
Scaling for 2026
For the ethanol supply year 2025-26, (November-October), 12.57 million tonne (MT) of maize is likely to be used for manufacturing 4780 million litre of ethanol.
While officials said that the country’s maize production was estimated at 43.4 MT in 2024-25, the output is sufficient to meet the rising demand for ethanol manufacturing, poultry feed and other usage.
It puts pressure on other industrial users and poultry or cattle feed makers to source the grain cheaper. To maintain feed availability, the poultry industry has started to use domestically available rice brands, broken rice, bajra and wheat for manufacturing animal feed.
At present, oil marketing companies procure 11,000 million litres of ethanol made from sugarcane, rice and maize annually for 20% blending with petrol while the existing manufacturing capacity is of around 17,000 million litres.
Indian distilleries produce around 380-390 liters of ethanol per metric ton of corn and 450-460 liters for each metric ton of rice.
According to the petroleum ministry, ethanol blending in petrol has increased from 380 million litres in 2013-14 to more than 10,000 million litres in 2024-25 , thereby achieving an average blending of 19.24%. Till October, 2025, 19.97% ethanol blending has been achieved.
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Source : Financial Express
