Sustainable Transformation of the Rural Areas(SUTRA),has successfully introduced bio-fuel in the villages of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka .. Biofuel from Non- Edible oils
Future Energy
Maharashtra Energy Development Agency
Vol. 1 No.2. April-June 2003
The draft national policy on bio-fuel strongly recommends the use of bio-fuel processed from non edible oils.
U.Srinivasa,professor of the Indian Institute of science (IISc),Bangalore ,who is the member of the committee that prepared the draft-and heads the Sustainable Transformation of the Rural Areas(SUTRA) project of the IISc, has successfully introduced bio-fuel in the villages of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka .
He is currently implementing a bio-fuel based rural electrification project funded by the department of science and technology, in six villages near Udaipur ,Rajasthan. Non-edible oils extracted from Pongamia pinnata (karanja), cotton seed, neem and mahua can be used as bio-fuel .
In Dandeli district of Karnataka,generarators of large capacity were operated on karanja oil. In fact farmers of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were using karanja oil to run farm equipments on a regular basis.
Prof. Srinivasa estimated that every 10 million-hectare equivalent of tree cover (oil seed trees) could annually render 25 million tons of diesel substitutes, while 70 million tons of oilcake, which if fermented ,could substitute an equal quantity of coal. In other words, a 30 million -hectare tree cover can completely replace India's current use of fossil fuel, both liquid and solid, at an affordable cost.
After separating the oilseeds ,the pod covers can be used as a substitute for fire wood in cooking ,while secondary oil seed cake can be used as organic manure after extracting biogas from them, which can be used for rural electrification.
It has ben found that the bio diesel processed from non-edible oils burn better than diesel,has excellent lubricity and improves engine efficiency,although slightly. No engine change is required if one wanted to use bio-diesel as fuel in vehicles.Bio-diesel is also an excellent fuel substitute for trucks ,buses, trains and diesel automobiles.
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