India, Aug. 11 -- After making the much-debated E20 the standard petrol across India, the Centre has been planning to blend biofuel into diesel. However, the government has said that the ethanol blending in diesel has failed the flash-point test. Ethanol-blended diesel failed the required safety specifications before the addition of ethanol sharply lowered the fuel's flash point, said Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi. He effectively ruled out the fuel for wider use unless the technical issue is resolved.

In a written response to Parliament, the minister said that public-sector oil marketing companies conducted scientific evaluations of ethanol blending with diesel through their research and development centres,...