Hyderabad:India is stepping up to be on par with First World Countries, in terms of producing biofuels. India, which has already made biofuel from the Jatropha plant, is currently working on converting cooking oils to diesel. Here comes a complete analysis of India's biofuel efforts:
The Indian Petroleum Research Institute (IIP), which successfully extracted biofuels from the Jatropha plant, is in the process of converting cooking oils into diesel. At the International Science Fest in Kolkata last month, IIP scientists exhibited on the subject. Fresh edible oils can be converted to diesel by adding methanol and some chemicals, making it cheaper.
IIP has been producing biofuel for many years from Jatropha plants. Farmers in many states have started cultivating Jatropha as a commercial crop. Indian farmers are adapting technology developed by Israel to grow Jatropha plants faster.
On the other hand, ethanol is being used as fuel throughout the country with the encouragement of the central government. Efforts are on, to make biofuel from cooking oil. The biofuel produced by the IIP from Jatropha was successfully used several years ago in two-stroke engines. Some Maharashtra Transport Company vehicles also ran on this fuel.
Despite these efforts, biofuel production on a commercial basis has not yet begun. Biofuels from fresh edible oils are gaining momentum. Successful with biofuel, an aircraft has also been flown with the help of a 330kg diesel produced out of Jatropha. The aircraft, owned by SpiceJet Airlines, flew to Dehradun in 2018 from Delhi for 45 minutes. The Air Force's AS-32 transport aircraft was operated with bio-diesel during the 2019 Republic Day parade.
The Jatropha plant contains 40 per cent oil. It was mixed with aviation turbine fuel (ATF), to flow the said aircraft. Jatropha is being cultivated by around 500 farmers in Maoist affected areas of Chhattisgarh. In nature, about 400 variety of seeds are used for biofuel production. Flying with a kerosene-based ATF has a negative impact on the weather. About 4.9 per cent of climate change is caused by air travel.
Dr Ranjan Ray, Senior Scientist at IIP explained that carbon emissions are greatly reduced by the use of biofuels. Jet aircraft, used in airfare activities in India require an ATF of 60-70 lakh tons per year. Half of that demand is met with bio-diesel, while a third of cooking oil consumed in this half will not only reduce the cost of ATF but also reduce carbon emissions. Diesel can also be used to produce 850-950 millilitres of biodiesel from one litre of cooking oil.
The Indian Food Safety and Standards Agency (FSSAI) has imposed new restrictions on the re-use of edible oils once used in hotels and other commercial restaurants. With biodiesel extracted from edible oils, jet planes and motor vehicles can also be run without leaving a carbon footprint on the climate. Hence, efforts are on to produce biodiesel in many different ways. Already in about 9 states and 4 union territories, ethanol is extracted from the cane and used as fuel in the engines. India made about 160 bn lts of ethanol in 2005 and became the world's fourth-largest ethanol producer.
India plans to reduce diesel consumption by 20% through the utilization of a combination of biodiesel and conventional fuel. In the year 2007 India signed a Cebu Declaration on East Asian Energy Security along with 10 ASEAN members (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Cambodia), as well as China, Japan, New Zealand, India, South Korea and Australia.
The declaration aims at research and development of biofuels. These countries are already on the path to increase the production of biofuels, to combat the ever-increasing air pollution and decrease in oil reserves. The US, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and Venezuela have already reached an important milestone in biofuel production. About 40% of the world's biofuel is produced in the US alone. The US produces 3 to 4 trillion tons of biofuels per year and is a leading player in the industry.
Brazil is the second-largest producer with 2.5 billion tonnes. As much as 3.15 tonnes of charcoal gas is generated when one ton of oil is ignited. Many countries are moving forward with innovative programs to produce safer biofuels instead of polluting oil. America is widely producing biofuel from fresh / used edible oils and animal fat. This type of biofuel is used in both civilian and military motor vehicles, with the combination of 20 parts of bio-fuel and the remaining 80 parts with ordinary diesel. In 2018, the US launched a large-scale airplane flight with biofuels.
World-wide experiments are being conducted to produce bio-fuel like biomethane, bio-diesel etc., from various raw materials such as corn, saw-dust, algae, animal and other wastes etc. to meet the goals set by the International Energy Agency and achieve Sustainable Development, global biofuel production should triple by 2030. Likewise, there is also a concern that food security is threatened if crop-farms are turned into biofuel production plants!!
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