Biodiesel: An Overview

Dr Prakash Kumar

According to a survey of 28 countries for the International Energy Agency, biodiesel has been produced within the last six years in 21 countries, mainly in the European Union, East Europe, Malaysia and in the USA with an overall capacity of around 13,00,000 tons. In most developed countries, biodiesel is produced from soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, peanut, etc., which are essentially edible in the Indian context.

Identification of Tree Borne Oilseeds (TBOs) suitable for biodiesel will help reduce the pressure to divert the available land to non-edible uses in a country like India where land resources are limited. Some efforts have been made to utilize Jatropha and Karanja oil as biodiesel.

Approach & Objectives
A mission mode approach is proposed to be adopted for Jatropha plantation in potential states/districts of the country with a view to:

• creating rural employment generation,
• greening wastelands,
• drought proofing,
• reducing growing dependence on imported petroleum products,
• achieving Bharat-III norms by 2007 and Bharat-IV norms by 2010 in respect of vehicular emissions corresponding to Euro-III and Euro-IV norms of emission,
• securing energy security for the country in general and for rural areas in particular, and promoting organic farming.

Besides undertaking new plantation, the existing collection of TBOs is also proposed to be enhanced by creating infrastructure facilities such as establishment of seed produce procurement and oil expelling centers in each of the identified potential states/districts of the country. Apart from increasing the availability of vegetable oil, the seed procurement/collection operation assumes significant dimensions in the context of the fact that the earning of tribal collectors engaged in the collection of the TBOs are to a larger extent dependent upon the collection of seeds. Besides, providing employment to the tribals and other weaker sections of society, the available forest resources would also be optimally utilized with no additional requirement of land and inputs.

Each seed produce procurement center would be provided with preprocessing and processing facilities like a processing shed, seed godown, cleaner and grader, decorticator, drier, depulper, oil expeller, moisture meter, weighting bridge, etc. The farmers/seed collectors will bring their seeds to these procurement centers for disposal at remunerative prices. The crushing of seeds will also be undertaken at these centers. The necessary facilities for storage of oil at these centers is proposed to be created. In each district, 8-10 such centres would be established through JFM societies, NGOs, the corporate sector, corporations, etc.

Promotion of Plantations
Initially, it is proposed to promote Jatropha plantation in wastelands of the country. Its oil, being a potential substitute to diesel, possesses several other properties such as wide environmental tolerance, grown on any type of soil, well adopted to various kinds of wastelands, easy propagation through seeds/cuttings, requires minimal after-plantation care, lesser gestation periods, not grazed by animals even during the times of drought, etc., strengthens its case for promotion in wastelands. The plantation of karanja will also be undertaken, since it has equal potential, except for larger gestation periods as compared to Jatropha.

The plantation over an area of 5 million hectares of wasteland comprising degraded forest land, non- forest land, agricultural field boundaries, public land along roads, irrigation channels and railway tracts, etc., is proposed to be undertaken in 200 districts of 19 states with the participation of various departments/organizations of agriculture and rural development ministries, NGOs, cooperative bodies, farmers groups, etc. Initially pilot plantations over an area of 50,000 ha. each in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh is proposed to be undertaken during 2003-04. To facilitate the oil extraction and transesterification, three to four contiguous districts, on the basis of availability of wasteland, i.e. about 15,000 ha. per district, would be identified in these states.

Economics
The seeds of identified superior genotypes would be utilized for raising quality nurseries through seeds/cutting. To ensure high rater of survivals, 4 to 6 month-old oil plants/seedlings will be transplanted to the field. The unit cost for undertaking a plantation at a spacing of 2m x 2m, accommodating 2500 plants per ha. and maintenance for one year, has been worked out to be Rs 30,000/ha. On an average, it is expected that one hectare of Jatropha plantation would yield 5 MT of seeds, of which 1.5 MT of oil and 3.5 MT of cake would be obtained. The cake can be used as organic manure being rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.

The plantation in 15,000 ha. in each district that will produce 75,000 MT of seeds and 30,000 MT of oil, will have 8-10 procurement centers with oil extraction facilities. Since under pilot plantation 50,000 ha. area in each of the above states is proposed to be covered, this is likely to produce about 75,000 MT oil per annum. A transesterification plant with a capacity of 80,000 - 1,00,000 MT per annum may be set up.

The capacity building program to motivate the farmers to take up Jatropha plantation, provide technical guidance regarding silvicultural practices, quality collection of seeds, etc. would be organized. Publications pertaining to silvicultural practices for Jatropha plantation would be brought out in English, Hindi and other regional languages.

The program of technology development and refinement would be undertaken to identify superior genotypes/trees which can produce higher seed yields, better quality and quality of oil, standardize nursery raising techniques (i.e. vegetative/tissue culture), seed resource assessments, collection of their cryopreservation, standardization of agro-techniques, disease and insect-pest management, etc.

Conclusion
The promotion of Jatropha plantation can generate tremendous job opportunities among the rural masses. Simultaneous production of indigenous biodiesel from its oil will resist the outflow of valuable foreign exchange caused by the import of crude petroleum. It may lead to a revolutionary transformation of the current gloomy economic and energy scenario with an era of economic bloom and prosperity for all sections of society.

NOVOD Board is organizing demonstrations of plantations of Jatropha in an area not less than 20 ha. each in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mizoram, MP, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh through State Agricultural Universities, State Departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, State Farm Corporation of India, Indian Farmers Fertilizer Development Cooperative Ltd. and reputed NGOs like Tata Energy Research Institute, etc. The demonstration of suitable silvicultural practices for Jatropha plantation in degraded wastelands with poor fertility and low water holding capacity will pave the way for early adoption by the farmers. These demonstrations will orient the local farmers who can see, learn and adopt the technology for raising Jatropha in their own wastelands and fetch revenue. In turn, this will enhance the availability of oil for biodiesel besides providing green coverage to the wastelands. These plantations will also serve as base material for future Jatropha plantations in larger areas.

Courtesy: Dr Parkash Kumar; Executive Director National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oils Development Board (NOVOD); Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India 86, Sector-18, Gurgaon 122015, Haryana Tel: 95124 2343181; Fax: 95124 2343281 Dr Parkash Kumar possesses more than 27 years experience as a Research & Management Scientist in the field of Agriculture. He joined NOVOD Board as Executive Director in September 2000, and has occupied several positions such as Senior Scientist and Head (Oilseeds) at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar; Director (Seeds), Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, GoI; and Project Coordinator (Rapeseed & Mustard) in ICAR. He has also visited several countries such as France, Mongolia, Canada and UK to discuss and finalize collaborative programs and has also attended international Conferences on crop production.

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