BJP's engineer MP explains E20 petrol benefits with external combustion

Amid protests in India over E20 petrol, its impact on vehicle performance and mileage, and a debate about whether it will end up damaging critical components, a BJP MP, who is also an engineer, has tried to prove the superiority of ethanol over petrol through an external combustion experiment. For beginners, fuel is burnt in engines in a controlled environment, called internal combustion. The result of which is very unlike the open flames seen in the video of BJP Rajya Sabha MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy.In the three-minute clip posted on X, Reddy, an engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and BJP MP from Telangana's Chevella constituency, attempted to demonstrate the advantages of ethanol as a vehicle fuel by burning petrol and ethanol in separate steel tumblers.Explaining why he conducted the experiment, Reddy said, "Ethanol and E20 are in the news, and a lot of discussion and debate, propaganda and false propaganda and E20 is good, E20 is bad, engine damage, lower mileage, more repair and maintenance and even political scams." BJP's engineer MP explains E20 petrol benefits with external combustion. (Image: @BJP4India) During the experiment, Reddy pointed to what he described as ethanol's advantages, noting that it produced far less smoke and left practically no residue compared with petrol. "This is environmentally bad, bad for your health. It accelerates climate change, increases carbon dioxide in the air and this is definitely good for the US economy, Saudi Arabia's economy and the Middle East economy. This was petrol, dirty," the BJP's engineer MP said while describing the petrol sample.In contrast, Reddy described ethanol as "not a fossil fuel" and "a carbon-neutral fuel", arguing that it is produced from agricultural products such as sugarcane, maize and rice. "It is made by our industry. It is made by our technology and our machinery. This benefits our farmers. This benefits our industry and it helps our economy. This is good for India," he said.HOW IS FUEL BURNT IN THE ENGINE OF A VEHICLE?Now, while Chevella MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy has made some valid points, particularly that ethanol is less polluting than petrol and can reduce India's dependence on imported fuel and save some foreign exchange, his external combustion experiment overlooks a few key facts.Fuel in an internal combustion engine burns very differently from the flames seen in Reddy's video.Let's have a look at how an internal combustion (IC) engine or ICE works.An IC engine works by burning fuel inside the engine's cylinder, with the resulting expansion of gases pushing a piston inside the cylinder, which rotates a crankshaft, which, in turn, rotates the driveshaft, connected to the wheels via an axle.A typical car engine has anywhere between three and eight cylinders arranged in various configurations. In a conventional four-stroke petrol engine, the piston first draws a mixture of air and fuel into the cylinder. Components like turbochargers and fuel injectors are used to control the amount of fuel and air being injected into the piston at a time. This mixture is then compressed by the piston, before being ignited by a spark plug.The resulting expanding gases push the piston down, generating power, before the exhaust gases are expelled as the cycle repeats. An IC engine works by compressing an air-fuel mixture before igniting it to drive the pistons. (Image: Generative AI) DOES BJP MP'S EXPERIMENT REFLECT HOW CAR ENGINES BURN FUEL?In contrast, Reddy's tumbler experiment is an uncontrolled external combustion test, where the fuels are simply exposed to atmospheric oxygen and ignited. It fails to replicate an IC engine, where combustion occurs under controlled conditions involving the air-fuel ratio, fuel injection, compression, ignition timing, pressure and temperature.According to Rahul Ghosh, Deputy Editor of Auto Today, Reddy's experiment also fails to take into account how ethanol, or fuels blended with ethanol, reacts to being burnt within an IC engine."With tightening emission norms, combustion in the engine has to be extremely well controlled to ensure efficient burning. Any contaminant which is not graded as combustible material, reduces engine efficiency. Moisture, an ally of flex fuels [petrol blended with ethanol], is not exactly combustible, and thus, it reduces the efficiency of engines. However, burning fuel in an open area [as Reddy did] is a completely different ball game," Ghosh told India Today Digital.The BJP's official X handle shared Reddy's video on the burning of ethanol and petrol."A lot of misinformation has recently been spread about E20 petrol. In this video, BJP MP from Chevella, Shri Konda Vishweshwar Reddy ji, reveals the truth through a simple, eye-opening experiment," the BJP posted. "Blending 20% ethanol with petrol makes combustion significantly cleaner, reducing pollution," it said.As such, while MP Reddy has successfully demonstrated that ethanol is less polluting than petrol when burnt in steel tumblers, it fails to replicate what would happen if it were burned in an internal combustion engine.WHY VEHICLE OWNERS ARE CONCERNED ABOUT E20 PETROLAnd in any case, motorists have far larger concerns than whether the fuel they put in their tanks is producing less smoke or not.While the deadline for the mandatory sale of 20% ethanol-blended petrol was advanced to April 2025, it has been reported that over 80% of vehicles weren't E20 compliant."Dear scientist...people are not against E20...people are against forcing of E20 only petrol," said a person responding to Reddy.People are concerned about whether the fuel and ethanol mixture they are filling up with is reducing their car's mileage, or is it steadily eating away hard-to-replace expensive engine components.These concerns have led to a drop in the sale of petrol cars compared to their diesel counterparts."Can you tell confidently that no parts of cars get damaged and milage in not reduced due to ethanol mixing? Will take your words as the government's words," said a person responding to Reddy's video."Good point. Watch my next videos... will cover those and other points like engine damage, low mileage , higher repair and maintenance cost etc," replied Reddy.Konda Vishweshwar Reddy has promised to talk about mileage, engine damage, repair and maintenance costs and "about the economics of the nation and the economics and the pockets of individuals" in his next video. Maybe that will help reduce some of those concerns.- EndsPublished By: Shounak SanyalPublished On: Aug 17, 2026 19:12 IST