1 Biodiesel Technology Need of the Hour For India
Mack Hemmant edited this page 2025-01-11 08:03:53 -05:00


The non-renewability, environmental issues and health threats connected with the fossil fuels has led to exploration of alternative sources of energy to substitute the conventional ones. A promising technology, still in its infancy, that might reveal us the way to the future ahead is Biodiesels. Biodiesels are diesel fuels obtained from grease or animal-fat that might be utilized to run diesel motors. Vegetables oils like sunflower, rape seed, palm oil, soya bean, jatropha curcas and so on can be subjected to oil processing to produce biodiesels. It contains no petroleum however can be combined with petroleum diesel for use or could be utilized in its pure form.

Developed countries particularly United States and European Countries have already made considerable advances in the Biodiesel Technology. Biodiesel have discovered its use across industries and verticals and could emerge as an ideal cleaner and less expensive alternative to fuel, diesel and nonrenewable fuel sources. India has actually also started checking out the chances to produce and use bio-diesel. A number of plants for biodiesel transesterification are already functioning in the nation where vegetable oils are responded with alcohols (ethanol or methanol normally) to produce bio-diesel.

The main reason for the increasing demand for biodiesels is the fact that biodiesels are eco-friendly and carbon-neutral, hence having no net influence on the climate. Besides, bio-diesel runs in compression engines simply like normal petroleum diesel and for this reason can be used with little or no engine adjustments. Biodiesel do not require any separate infrastructure for its storage and can be stored much like the petroleum based fuels.

Considering the growing energy demand in the nation, rising petroleum costs and the ecological threats of nonrenewable fuel sources, the Indian Government has actually used up initiatives to establish the Technology in India and established more oil processing systems. The Government announced its 'National Biofuel Policy' on 12 September 2008 which intends to fulfill 20% of India's diesel demand with bio-fuels in the coming years.

Globally, edible vegetable oils like sunflower, soya bean, rape seed, palm oil are utilized as the pre-dominant raw materials for oil processing and biodiesel production but in India the optimal potential to produce biodiesels is from jatropha curcas oil - a non-edible one produced from the seeds of the Jatropha curcas. The most significant benefit of utilizing Jatropha as a basic material is that this plant can be grown in huge quantities in wastelands all across India needing really little water in comparison to other money crops. Once grown, the plant has a useful life-span of numerous years. The jatropha curcas seeds consist of 40% oil and are thought about to be an outstanding source of bio-diesel. The Government of India has actually identified 400,000 square kilometres of land appropriate for the Jatropha growing in the nation. India now

A research study estimates that even if a mixing effort of 2% Jatropha based Biodiesel is accomplished in 2011-12, India will save around Rs. 3000 crores. Besides, it will create around Rs. 5500 crores in the rural economy and help in decrease of Green House Gas emission by 3 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) every year. The government is taking actions to motivate the cultivation of Jatropha in India supplying totally free seeds, subsidized loans and other centers. India needs to now reinforce its efforts to make the maximum usage of the Biodiesel Technology. Besides jatropha curcas, the opportunities for drawing out biodiesel from veggie oils, fats, sunflower, rape seed oil and palm oil must also be explored. It will not just provide an answer to the difficulty of Global Warming but might decrease our dependence on foreign oil and add to our own economy.