1 Biodiesel Technology Need of the Hour For India
Fermin Hobson edited this page 2025-01-17 20:49:05 +00:00


The non-renewability, environmental concerns and health threats associated with the fossil fuels has actually led to exploration of alternative sources of energy to replace the conventional ones. An appealing technology, still in its infancy, that might show us the method to the future ahead is Biodiesels. Biodiesels are diesel fuels stemmed from vegetable oil or animal-fat that could be used to run diesel engines. Vegetables oils like sunflower, rape seed, palm oil, soya bean, Jatropha etc can be subjected to oil processing to produce biodiesels. It consists of no petroleum but can be combined with petroleum diesel for usage or could be utilized in its pure form.

Developed countries particularly United States and European Countries have currently made significant advances in the Biodiesel Technology. Biodiesel have found its use across industries and verticals and might emerge as a perfect cleaner and cheaper alternative to fuel, diesel and fossil fuels. India has also started exploring the opportunities to produce and utilize bio-diesel. A number of plants for biodiesel transesterification are currently operating in the nation where vegetable oils are reacted with alcohols (ethanol or methanol generally) to produce bio-diesel.

The primary factor for the increasing demand for biodiesels is the truth that biodiesels are eco-friendly and carbon-neutral, therefore having no net effect on the environment. Besides, bio-diesel runs in compression engines just like normal petroleum diesel and for this reason can be utilized with little or no engine modifications. Biodiesel do not need any separate facilities for its storage and can be kept simply like the petroleum based fuels.

Considering the growing energy need in the nation, increasing petroleum costs and the ecological threats of nonrenewable fuel sources, the Indian Government has actually used up initiatives to establish the Bio Diesel Technology in India and established more oil processing units. The Government announced its 'National Biofuel Policy' on 12 September 2008 which intends to fulfill 20% of India's diesel need 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 basic materials for oil processing and but in India the optimal capacity to produce biodiesels is from jatropha curcas oil - a non-edible one produced from the seeds of the Jatropha curcas. The greatest benefit of using Jatropha as a raw product is that this plant can be grown in huge quantities in wastelands all throughout India needing really little water in comparison to other cash crops. Once grown, the plant has a helpful life expectancy of several years. The Jatropha seeds consist of 40% oil and are considered to be an excellent source of bio-diesel. The Government of India has actually recognized 400,000 square kilometres of land suitable for the jatropha curcas growing in the country. 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 produce around Rs. 5500 crores in the rural economy and assistance in decrease of Green House Gas emission by 3 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) every year. The federal government is taking actions to encourage the growing of Jatropha in India offering totally free seeds, subsidized loans and other facilities. India needs to now reinforce its efforts to make the max usage of the Biodiesel Technology. Besides jatropha curcas, the avenues for extracting biodiesel from veggie oils, fats, sunflower, rape seed oil and palm oil need to also be checked out. It will not only supply an answer to the difficulty of Global Warming but could reduce our reliance on foreign oil and add to our own economy.