PEOPLE AND THEIR PROBLEMS

New Delhi, 31 December 2005

Towards Energy Security Regime

A BIG BOOST TO BIOFUEL PRODUCTION

By Radhakrishna Rao

The recent announcement by the Petroleum Minister,  Mani Shankar Aiyar of a national policy that will enable farmers and biofuel producers get a support price of Rs.25 per litre  of non-edible oil extracted from species like jatropha and pongamia is welcome against the backdrop of the skyrocketing prices of the fossil fuel in the international market. Aiyar, who has been quite active in creating an energy security regime for India has called for public-private participation towards boosting the production of biofuel.

As things stand now, India’s potential to strike new oil and gas fields in the near future is quite limited. On the other hand, the potential to produce biofuel from a variety of plants  is quite unlimited.

According to Aiyar public sector companies like HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd), IOC (Indian Oil Corporation) and BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd) will set up procurement centres in various parts of the country. Considering the growing demand for energy to sustain the economic development, the new policy aims at setting up public-private partnership to encourage biodiesel production from jatropha cultivation on the wasteland.

Indeed, the ultimate objective of the national policy on biodiesel  is to bring one million hectares of wasteland under jatropha cultivation. The immediate goal is to blend 5% of the biodiesel with the diesel  sold across  the country and the percentage of  biodiesel in the diesel will be increased to 20% in a phased manner. On its part the New Delhi-based  Energy and Resources  Institute (TERI) has called for a national mission on biodiesel and suggested integrated demonstration projects in various parts of the country. 

Meanwhile, a projection by India’s Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) comes to the conclusion that the country can save foreign exchange to the tune of Rs.25,000-million if the policy is successfully implemented. As things stand now, the hardy and drought resistant jatropha that needs very little inputs to grow has emerged as a most sought after species for the production of biodiesel.

In a major boost the popularization of jatropha biodiesel, the auto giant Daimler Chrysler India Ltd (DCIL)in cooperation with the Bhavnagar-based Central Sal and Marine Chemicals Research Institute(CSMCRI) and Hohenheim  University of Germany  has launched a project aimed at using jatropha oil as one hundred per cent substitute for diesel to power two of its C-class cars.

The two cars powered with jaropha biodiesel have completed test runs in various geographical regions of India including the high altitude Leh and sandy Rajasthan. These test runs have gone to show that biodiesel used in the unmodified Mercedes diesel engine made for a “smooth and comfortable” run. Jatropha oils’s sulphur and phosphorous content were found to be lower than that of fossil fuel and its citan number, an indicator  of ignition quality was higher than the standard required in the US and West Europe.

Significantly, the transesterified jatropha oil used in these tests fulfilled most of the Euro-4  norms in its non-blended form. In transesterification, the oil is made to react with the  alcohol in the presence of a catalyst that helps turn it into biodiesel. The product is heated upto to 600 degrees Celsius after which ester or top layer is separated from glycerin. “We have produced neat biodiesel that can run on all types of diesel engines with modifications and generates lower emissions than achievable with fossil diesel” says Dr. Pushpito Ghosh, Director of CSMCRI. Ghosh made it clear that CSMRI’s thrust  would be on making use of wasteland and marginal lands for growing jatropha since the arable land can be set aside for conventional farming.

According to Ghosh, the jatropha oil developed by CSMCRI has been successfully used for applications including running water pumps and power generation sets. The CSMCRI with the support of DCIL has initiated an action plan for raising jatropha plantations over a stretch of 30 acres---in two distinct agroclimatic zones of India – in subhumid Orissa and semi arid Gujarat. These plantations will make use of the high yielding disease resistant varieties of  jatropha.

The project, explains Ghosh, seeks to establish a viable cultivation technology on  saline wasteland, optimise processing and prepare jatropha biodiesel from wild seeds on a scale large enough to conduct test  runs besides identifying suitable outlets  for the by products by devising an appropriate integrated model for local use in partnership with local farmers and rural cooperatives.

The CSMCRI, along with DCIL, is also planning to set up village level cooperatives in Gujarat later this year to popularize jatropha cultivation. According to Hans Michel Hubar, CEO and Managing Director of DCIL, the use of jatropha biodiesel has the potential to solve a multitude of problems including soil erosion, unemployment, carbon di oxide emission and increasing oil imports bill. On the other hand Suhas Kadlaskar, Director of Corporate Affairs at DCIL,  says that with the technological feasibility of the jatropha oil as a diesel substitute has  already been tested, the economic feasibility of the jatropha oil should be evaluated.

The studies done at the Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Petroleum have shown that  one hectare of land yields 7.5 tonnes of jatropha seeds from which 2.5 tonnes of biodiesel can be extracted. The State-owned Indian Railways, the single largest user of fuel in India’s transportation sector is planning to make use of around 90,000 hectares of land available for raising and plantations of jatropha.

In Hyderabad, the Nandan Biometrix has unveiled a plan for raising high yielding seeds and saplings of jatropha in association with ICRISAT(International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics).”Nandan is targeting to grow jatropha in over  2,00,000 hectares of land over the next three years. Currently, it has a pilot project at Hyderabad spread over an area of 150 acres,” says C.S. Jadhav, Director (Marketing) of the company.

Similarly, the Chennai-based  D Mohan Bio Oils has taken up a project to set up a facility to process  about 24,000 tonnes of jatropha seeds a year to produce around 8,000 tonnes of biodiesel.  On another front a number of industrial outfits including OIL and BPCL are planning to promote the contact farming of jatropha in Chattisagarh, which has an ambitious plan to make available  wasteland for raising biofuel plantations by the  private sector.

According to Chattisagarh Chief Minister Dr.Raman Singh the plantations of jatropha in wasteland and fallow land of the state will generate an extra income of Rs.2000-million per year for the villagers by 2010.Significantly, the Govt of Chattisagarh has already made plans to set up Chattisagarh Biofuel Development Authority  for the purpose.

The thrust of the action plan is to encourage private sector investment in contract farming, setting up oil expellers and transelectrification  facilities for biodiesel production. The other Indian States that  have many incentive-packed schemes to boost jatropha cultivation are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Haryana.---INFA

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