Oasis Group is planning to invest Rs 500 crore for establishing a wheat-based ethanol plant with capacity of 5 lakh litres per day at Ferozepur in Punjab.

At present, mostly sugar mills are producing ethanol in the country, which is being sold to the petroleum companies.

The Centre has fixed the target of mixing up to 10 per cent ethanol in petrol, but so far it has achieved only 2.5 per cent blending.

The group operates five distilleries across the country with a collective production of about 20 crore litres of grain-based extra neutral alcohol.

The group is in the process of launching a tripled distilled green apple and orange flavored Vodka in the premium segment shortly, besides a premium grapes spirit brandy for the South Indian market.

ABOUT ETHANOL

# Ethanol fuel is (ethyl alcohol), the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages.

# It is most often used as a motor fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline.

# The first production car running entirely on ethanol was the Fiat 147, introduced in 1978 in Brazil by Fiat. Nowadays, cars are able to run using 100% ethanol fuel or a mix of Ethanol and gasoline (aka flex-fuel).

# It is commonly made from biomass such as corn or sugarcane.