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Sunday, March 23, 2008
New project in India for non-edible Bio-fuel
Reported by Raju Rao in Chennai
India, which imports more than 70 per cent of its oil and gas, is trying to launch one of the world’s biggest jatropha biofuel projects in order to bolster energy security. The country’s Ministry of Rural Development has proposed spending $375 million over five years to plant 1.2 million acres of jatropha across India and research the crop’s viability as a biofuel. This is still an experiment and if successful, the government would aim for 30 million acres of jatropha plantations and seek to commercialise cultivation. If 10 per cent of India’s estimated 60 million hectares (148 million acres) of non-arable land is cultivated for jatropha or other biofuels, the country could produce 4-5 million tonnes of biodiesel a year, or about 10 per cent of current diesel demand.
Jatropha which consists of plants, shrubs and trees is native to Central America, and has become naturalized in many tropical and subtropical areas, including India, Africa, and North America.
Chhattisgarh, carved out of the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, hopes to generate 1,000 Mw, or a third of the state’s existing generating capacity, from alternative energy sources by next year. It is well positioned to become the India’s biodiesel hub. There are many indications in this direction.
Very actively and passionately promoted by the state government ,it has gone in large scale plantation planted and according to Shailendra Shukla, director of Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Authority, says that with the non-arable land available, “if all other states replicate this, it will change the economy of the country” .
(Photo: A bio-diesel plant)
Unlike biofuels made from crops such as soybeans and maize, jatropha (below) is inedible, grows on non-arable land and needs little water or care. “It has good potential, no doubt about it,” according to Suhas Wani, principal scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, near Hyderabad.
(In photo: Biodiesel powered cars)Chhattisgarh state is very rich in biodiversity having 12 % of the country’s forests and is therefore well suited for such a project .Howver , such a confidence in jatropha, is still untested on a large scale.
It is not surprising that all of Chhattisgarh’s official vehicles, including the chief minister’s Tata Safari jeep, are run on oil from the wrinkled black nut of a shrub-like tree called jatropha. It’s fleet of 40 or so jatropha-powered cars reflects the state’s push to develop alternative energy sources that also include solar, wind, small hydroelectric, biomass and industrial waste.
Sources :Financial Times , Business Standard and Wikipedia
India, which imports more than 70 per cent of its oil and gas, is trying to launch one of the world’s biggest jatropha biofuel projects in order to bolster energy security. The country’s Ministry of Rural Development has proposed spending $375 million over five years to plant 1.2 million acres of jatropha across India and research the crop’s viability as a biofuel. This is still an experiment and if successful, the government would aim for 30 million acres of jatropha plantations and seek to commercialise cultivation. If 10 per cent of India’s estimated 60 million hectares (148 million acres) of non-arable land is cultivated for jatropha or other biofuels, the country could produce 4-5 million tonnes of biodiesel a year, or about 10 per cent of current diesel demand.
Jatropha which consists of plants, shrubs and trees is native to Central America, and has become naturalized in many tropical and subtropical areas, including India, Africa, and North America.
Chhattisgarh, carved out of the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, hopes to generate 1,000 Mw, or a third of the state’s existing generating capacity, from alternative energy sources by next year. It is well positioned to become the India’s biodiesel hub. There are many indications in this direction.
Very actively and passionately promoted by the state government ,it has gone in large scale plantation planted and according to Shailendra Shukla, director of Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Authority, says that with the non-arable land available, “if all other states replicate this, it will change the economy of the country” .
(Photo: A bio-diesel plant)Unlike biofuels made from crops such as soybeans and maize, jatropha (below) is inedible, grows on non-arable land and needs little water or care. “It has good potential, no doubt about it,” according to Suhas Wani, principal scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, near Hyderabad.
(In photo: Biodiesel powered cars)It is not surprising that all of Chhattisgarh’s official vehicles, including the chief minister’s Tata Safari jeep, are run on oil from the wrinkled black nut of a shrub-like tree called jatropha. It’s fleet of 40 or so jatropha-powered cars reflects the state’s push to develop alternative energy sources that also include solar, wind, small hydroelectric, biomass and industrial waste.
Sources :Financial Times , Business Standard and Wikipedia
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