Stricter Emission Standards: Road Transport Ministry mandates stringent emission standards for flex-fuel vehicles: Details

In a move towards cleaner transportation in India by ensuring reduced vehicular emissions, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has introduced stricter emission standards for flex-fuel vehicles. The ministry, in a notification, issued recently, new rules for testing emissions in vehicles that want approval under BS-VI emission norms. According to the new standards, vehicles that can use bi-fuel with flex-fuel options must undergo tests for both gas and particulate pollutants. On the other hand, vehicles running on Hydrogen will only need to be tested for nitrogen oxide.
“Vehicles fuelled with biodiesel blends up to 7 percent will be tested with reference to diesel (B7) and vehicles fuelled with biodiesel blends above 7 percent will be tested with respective blends,” the notification from MoRTH read, said a report from ET.

It clarified that rules regarding the number limit and particulate mass for vehicles with positive ignition engines, including hybrids, will only apply to vehicles with direct injection engines. This approach will ensure that not only harmful gases but also tiny, lung-damaging particles are effectively controlled.
What are flex-fuel vehicles?
Flexible fuel vehicles are like any other automobile with internal combustion engines (ICE) capable of running on various fuel blends. They usually operate on petrol and any combination of petrol/diesel and ethanol, including high-ethanol blends like E85 (containing 51% to 83% ethanol). While countries like Brazil have mandated higher blends of Ethanol, in India, the govt plans to mandate 20 percent Ethanol blending by 2025.
In fact, we can already find several modern vehicles that come with E20 capabilities, meaning that they can operate on a 20 percent ethanol-blended fuel. The move comes amidst growing concerns about air quality in India, with several cities consistently ranking among the most polluted globally.