Flex-Fuel Vehicle

About Flex Fuel Technology

• Flex fuel, or flexible fuel, is an alternative fuel made of a combination of gasoline and methanol or ethanol.
• Flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) are those that have internal combustion engines designed to run on more than one type of fuel and also a mixture. It was first developed in the early 1990s and used in the mass-produced 1994 Ford Taurus.
• Component of FFVs: Flex fuel vehicles have one fuel system. Most components are the same as those found in a conventional petrol-only car.
• But, some special ethanol-compatible components are required to adjust to the different chemical properties and energy content in ethanol or methanol, such as modifications to the fuel pump and fuel injection system.
• The Engine Control Module (ECM) is also calibrated to accommodate the higher oxygen content of ethanol.
• Fuel use mechanism
• The most common versions of FFVs use a blend of petrol and ethanol or methanol. But, the engines in these vehicles are equipped to run on 100 per cent petrol or ethanol as well.
• This flexibility has been possible with the use of a fuel mix sensor and an engine control module (ECM) programming that senses and automatically adjusts for any ratio of designated fuels.

Analysis of Flex fuel

Flex Fuel Vehicle: Significance for India

• Achieving Environment Goals: Adoption of flex – fuel will help in reducing India’s carbon footprint as well as boost the economy as ethanol will be produced locally.
• Reduce Fossil Fuel Import: India is world’s third biggest oil importing and consuming nation. FFVs will reduce India’s dependency for fuels on other countries.
• Push for Ethanol Industry: India is the world’s fifth largest producer of ethanol after the US, Brazil, EU and China. Ethanol worldwide is largely used for consumption but nations like Brazil and India also dope it in petrol.
• India achieved the target of blending 10 per cent ethanol in petrol ahead of original schedule of November 2022.
• Government of India advanced the target of making petrol with 20 per cent ethanol by five years to 2025.

Stats IQ

Quarterly Employment Survey (QES)

• Recently, fourth round (January-March 2022) of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) was released.
• It is a part of the All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES).

Highlight

• Employment in nine non-farm sectors rose from 3.14 crore during September-December 2021 to 3.18 crore in January-March 2022.
• Around 3.18 crore workers were employed in about 5.31 lakh establishments between January and March.
• An increase of about four lakh workers compared with the third round of QES.
• Contribution: Manufacturing sector accounts for the largest percentage (38.5%) of the total number of workers, followed by education sector with 21.7%, IT/BPO sector with 12% and Health sector 10.6%,
• Almost 80% of the establishments engaged 10 to 99 workers.
• About 12% of the establishments reported fewer than 10 workers.
• Only 1.4% of the establishments surveyed reported at least 500 workers.
• Kind of Employees: Regular employees (86.4%) > 8.7% (contractual employees) > casual employees (2.3%) > self-employed (2%)> fixed term employees (0.7%).
• Participation of women workers: An increase from 31.6% in 3^rd quarter to 31.8% in the 4^th
• Women workers constituted about 52% of the workforce in the health sector, while the corresponding percentages in education, financial services and IT/ BPO sectors stood at 44%, 41% and 36%, respectively.

About All India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES)

• AQEES is released to provide quarterly estimates about employment and related variables of establishments in both organised and unorganised segments of nine sectors — manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurant, IT / BPO and financial services
• It is released by Labour Bureau, under Ministry of Labour & Employment.

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