Focusing attention on research and development of alternate fuels.,!

India’s petroleum situation in the past several years has led to focusing attention on research and development of alternate fuels. Use of fossil fuels at a much more rapid rate than can be sustained by nature has led to degradation of environment and fast depletion in their reserves. There is strong environmental pressure to eliminate or at least greatly reduce these emissions on one hand and substitution of petroleum fuels to control the burgeoning import bill on other. Serious research is underway in India to search for renewable, environmentally friendly alternative sources of energy. Biodiesel which is produced by transesterification of triglycerides with methanol has become increasingly important for a country like India. The major benefit of biodiesel production is that there is no need to follow the uni-focal approach of concentrating and utilizing the same vegetable oil in each and every corner of the globe. Each country or region can proceed in the production/utilization of particular oil, depending upon the climate and economy. In developed countries, most of the biodiesel are produced from variety of edible oil like soybean oil, rapeseed oil, canola oil or sunflower oil. However demand of edible oil being higher than its domestic production, there is no possibility of diverting this oil for production of biodiesel in India.

There are many plant species such as Jatropha curcas (Ratan Jyot), Pongamia pinnata (Karanja), Mesua ferrea (Nahar) etc. which bear seeds rich in oil. Around 450 such species are found in our country, but Jatropha and Karanja and Nahar are the three species which are abundantly found in NE region of India. North eastern part of India has a great potential of producing biodiesel from these species. Utilization of biodiesel in diesel engine and farm machinery has enormous potential for rural development in terms of employment opportunity for youth and infrastructure development in NE region. The by-product of the oil extraction from seeds and biodiesel production process could also be utilized for organic fertilizer, biogas production and for soap making.

In India, biodiesel production from variety of non edible oils have been pursued by many organization and the demonstration phase of national mission on bio-diesel has already been launched on April 28, 2006 by Ministry of Rural Development at New Delhi. During this phase the promotion of Jatropha cultivation and setting up demonstration oil extraction and transesterification facilities shall be taken up along with dissemination of information.