Himalayan News Service

New Delhi, March 18:

Eco-friendly bio-diesel, a possible alternative to petroleum-based diesel, is suddenly finding support from farmers and states like Haryana and Gujarat in India, which are already using it for public transport. While farmers see a good source for generating additional revenue through cultivation of jatropha seeds and manufacture of bio-diesel by blending bio-fuel with diesel, state governments see it as a mean to reducing transport pollution, say experts. In April 2004, Haryana started operating 20 buses with a five per cent blend of bio-fuel with diesel. “Haryana has now decided to operate the entire fleet of around 200 buses from the Gurgaon and Nuh bus depots on bio-diesel supplied from our Rewari terminal,” said R K Malhotra, general manager of Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) research centre.

“Our studies have shown there is smoke reduction and a drop in particulates and carbon-monoxide emission. Laboratory tests have shown that a higher jatropha oil blend of 20 pre cent leads to a higher 15 pre cent reduction in particulate and carbon monoxide emission,” Malhotra said. India is seeing action on several fronts as state-owned refining and marketing major IndianOil, Tata Motors Engineering Research Centre in Pune and the Indian Railways collaborate to study the environment and the long-term impact of using bio-diesel in vehicles and railway engines. The railways have already tested the efficacy of the bio-diesel on its superfast Shatabdi. Now a study is on to test the use of a higher blend of bio-fuel with diesel as also the impact on engines and other parts.

Earlier this month, four bio-diesel buses were introduced by the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) to run between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. Several other states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are seeing large-scale cultivation of jatropha, which can be grown on wasteland, in anticipation of a huge demand in three years when the trees would start bearing oilseeds. “Farmers in Tamil Nadu are interested in not only extracting raw oil from jatropha plants but also in manufacturing bio-diesel. It will fetch them a good profit when sold for transportation purposes to commercial vehicles,” said Pradeep Kumar Dadhich, a research fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

“The Tamil Nadu government is still in the process of formulating a policy for bio-diesel manufacturing. I don’t think it is wrong provided it is made using safe manufacturing processes,” said Dadhich. The bio-diesel blend can be derived from other renewable resources such as vegetable oils, animal fats, or algae. India is in the process of setting up a national mission on bio-diesel and has so far sanctioned four pilot projects for one village each in Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Dependent on imports for 70 pre cent of its crude requirement, India is expected to join the league of around 20 countries like the US and Brazil in three years when larger quantities of bio-fuel is likely to become available from jatropha plantations coming up in different parts of the country. Currently, however, the processed jatropha bio-fuel price is Rs 50 per litre as against Rs 30 per litre of petroleum-diesel.