Bio-diesel to reduce costs and pollution

Bio-diesel to reduce costs and pollution

UNI Lucknow Aug 10: Bio-diesel can be an eco-friendly panacea to the burgeoning fuel import bills and rising pollution level in cities due to the increasing vehicular population.

This was stated at the recently held bio-business meet on ?Bio-diesel: a biofuel of future?, organised by the biotech park here.

Addressing a news conference on the international bio-diesel day on Monday, biotech park CEO, Dr P K Seth demonstrated the usage of bio-diesel by lighting earthen lamps with ?biofuel? extracted from jatropha curca (ratanjyot).

Dr Seth said biodiesel was the future fuel and an eco-friendly and viable alternative resource for automobiles and even trains.

He said jatropha saplings from biotech park were of high quality and high oil yielding variety.

The Union government mandated the supply of 5 per cent ethanol (derived from waste molasses) to be blended with petrol from January 2003. The Planning Commission had also identified jatropha curca and pongamia pinata (honge) for producing bio-diesel.

Jatropha has now been selected for bio-diesel to be mixed at 5 per cent by year 2005 in a phased manner.

Uttar Pradesh science and technology department secretary, Mr Navneet Sahgal, said a network for propagation of biotech had been set up in Lucknow and 28 acres of land provided where farmers would raise tissue culture plants, prepare bio-fertilisers and acquaint with technology for oil from jatropha.

He informed that the state government was paying special attention to biotechnology and had even set-up a biotech development board to provide single window mechanism to help the industry.

The production of ratanjyot and honge plants is, however, at a nascent stage with National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and biotech park, said Dr Seth.

NBRI director Dr P Pushpangadan said jatropha takes at least two-and-a-half years to mature and the institute had 2-3 lakh saplings ready.

He further claimed that studies had shown that UP soil was suited for growing pingamia pinata which could be exploited for commercial use.