Trees to provide fuel for railway engines

Indian Railways has begun planting thousands of saplings of a tree that will meet 15 percent of its energy needs in the next few years, besides reducing pollution.

After years of research on its viability, officials are planting saplings of 'Jatropha' and 'Karanjia' trees, the seeds of which yield green fuel strong enough to run diesel locomotives.

Trial runs have been carried out successfully and laboratory tests have cleared the viability of this green fuel for commercial use.

For starters, 200,000 trees are being planted on the railway land in the Kharagpur division of West Bengal.

The plant could easily be grown on either side of railway tracks as they adopt themselves well to arid, semi-arid conditions and demands low fertility and moisture.

"We have begun planting the saplings and hope to begin running trains on bio-diesel on this division by 2006," according to Kharagpur divisional manager Shakeel Ahmed.

It takes two years for a 'Jatropha' sapling to begin producing seeds from which fuel could be extracted. A process called esterification is used to convert plant seed oil into bio-diesel.

The eco-friendly fuel would not only help the railways save on its rising fuel costs but also control the pollution level.

Sulphur and lead emissions would come down significantly once even 10 percent bio-diesel is used with a mixture of conventional diesel.

The railways' annual bill on use of diesel worked out to Rs.34 billion ($744 million), which bio-diesel could bring down by Rs.3-4 billion ($65-87 million) every year.

The railways intend to meet 15 percent of its energy needs from this green fuel. The green fuel plants would be planted in other parts of India on a large-scale soon.

Bio-diesel has high contents of cetane and lubricates and readily mixes with diesel without requiring any engine modification.

France, Germany and Italy lead the list of countries that are increasingly using bio-diesel.

The Indian Railway Board has already instructed all its zonal divisions to use bio-diesel as an alternative to conventional fuel to run locomotives and even vehicles.

The loco works department at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai had started using bio-diesel for its fleet of cars and transport vehicles.

In two years, the Kharagpur division authorities hope to run at least 78 locomotives on bio-diesel.

Authorities are setting a special extraction and esterification plant inside the diesel shed at the Kharagpur railway workshop so that it is ready by the time the saplings bear seeds.

"The Kharagpur division will be the first in the country to run long-distance trains on bio-diesel," Ahmed said.

This is a very good idea:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/%3E/articleshow/736484.cms

Bio-diesel for trains may get green light

AGENCIES[ MONDAY, JUNE 14, 2004 12:37:34 AM ]

CHENNAI: As crude prices skyrocket, an experiment to use bio-diesel in locomotives is entering a crucial stage in Southern Railways? locomotive works plant at Perambur.

The officials at the plant have already successfully carried out trial runs on four motor vehicles and in the coming days, propose to use bio-diesel ? derived from used vegetable oil and jatropha curcus, a drought-resistant plant seen in waste lands ? on two locomotives.

?The tests have been successful on our motor vehicles. If Indian Railways can use this fuel in all its locomotives, the government can save a whopping Rs 600 crore of foreign exchange per year,? said M Jayasingh, chief workshop manager of the Perambur loco works.

The two bio-fuel powered locomotives would start running in the next couple of weeks, he said.

But the availability of the bio-fuel, which is blended with diesel in a ratio of 20:80, is a big problem facing the railways.

A rough estimate indicates that the two locomotives themselves require about 200 litres of the bio-fuel every day.

Railway officials are collecting used vegetables as raw material for bio-fuel from restaurants and hotels, but it isn?t enough to meet the anticipated demand.

The Perumbur plant makes the bio-fuel from jatropha and pungum plants. However, the output is much less than the requirement. ?Our new and bigger plant will enable us to produce enough fuel to power the two locomotives,? Mr Jayasingh said.

He added, however, that the sourcing of raw materials for the bio-diesel extraction plant was not a big problem. ?All efforts are being made to plant a maximum number of jatropha plants in vacant lands and alongside railway tracks,? he said.

Moreover, the Indian Railways has leased out 5,000 hectares of land to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in the western region to plant jatropha trees to establish factors such as yield and availability of oil.

Another supplier can be the department of bio-energy at Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) in Coimbatore, which has set up a pilot bio-fuel plant. The plant can supply 250 litres of oil at Rs 20 per litre, according to officials.

The main advantage of using jatropha is that during a preparation process called ?esterification?, it generates a by-product, glycerine, that fetches Rs 40 per kg.

A research conducted by the agricultural engineering college and research institute of TNAU showed that 30-35% of oil can be extracted from the jatropha seed.

But the most attractive proposition is the environment-friendly nature of the bio-fuel. ?The emission levels of various harmful constituents are 60-100% lower on bio-fuel as compared to petrol or diesel,? Mr Jayasingh said.

Activities such as growing the trees, seed collection, oil extraction and processing could generate employment in rural areas, university officials said.

?In our country, there is a large-scale shortage of edible oil and it will be prudent to use edible oils such as pungam and jatropha curcus. These trees can be grown in the backyards of our houses and waste lands such as road hedges,? explained Mr Jayasingh.

As far as Indian Railways is concerned, bio-fuel isn?t exactly a new experiment. In December ?02, the Shatabdi Express between Delhi and Amritsar was run with a bio-diesel-powered locomotive. The bio-diesel supplied by IOC, was, however, a 5% blend.

?The present one will be on a much bigger scale,? Southern Railway officials said.

Worldwide, especially in developed countries, bio-fuel is increasingly gaining acceptance. Automobile majors such as BMW, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Skoda have authorised their vehicles to run on bio-diesel wherever possible.

But, the US and Europe use edible oils such as soyabean, rapeseed and sunflower oil. ?This is not possible in india,? said the officials.

?Edible oils are costly and for India to attain self-sufficiency in energy requirements, we need to add sufficient bio-fuel plants,? they added.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004051700831600.htm&date=2004/05/17/&prd=biz&

Bio-diesel ? fuel of the future

DaimlerChrysler that has been developing concepts for future automobiles is now working on alternative fuels such as the fuel cell and the bio-diesel fuel.

THE NAME `Jatropha' may be funny to co-relate with automobiles now, but in times to come it is going to be on the lips of our children and probably the first name on our grand children's vocabulary. Jatropha plant has been researched over the last five years at the Hohenheim University in Germany and could be `the fuel of the future.'

India is home to a billion people, about a sixth of the world's population. The demand for mobility and automobiles in India has also been growing along with the economic progress. Passenger vehicle sales in India crossed the million mark last year and this has been spread over different classes of vehicles. The country faces problems in regard to the fuel requirement for increased transportation demand and now imports about 70 per cent of its petroleum requirement. Widely fluctuating world prices of oil have long been a destabilising element for the country's balance of payments. The petroleum import bill is now about $13 billion forming about 30 per cent of the national import bill and is expected to reach $15.7 billion by 2006-07. The current yearly consumption of diesel is about 40 million tonnes forming 40 per cent of the total petroleum product consumption. This is expected to reach 52.32 million tonnes by 2006-07 growing at about 5.6 per cent annually. India's vehicular pollution is estimated to have increased eight times over the last two decades. This source alone is estimated to contribute about 70 per cent to the total air pollution. With 243.3 million tonnes of carbon released from the consumption and combustion of fossil fuels in 1999, India ranked fifth in the world behind the U.S., China, Russia and Japan. India's contribution to world carbon emissions is expected to increase in the coming years due to the rapid pace of urbanisation, shift from non-commercial to commercial fuels, increased vehicular usage and continued use of older and more inefficient coal-fired power plants.

India also faces the problem of poverty and under-development. About 70 per cent of the population continues to earn its livelihood from agriculture. Improper land use and population pressure over several years has resulted in extensive degradation of agricultural land. Of the estimated 130 million hectares of wasteland in India about 33 million hectares are available for reclamation through tree plantation, according to Planning Commission figures. The answer to the above requirement is to search for an alternative to the natural resources of fossil fuel that could be produced by mankind and that too on waste lands or lands that cannot be cultivated.

DaimlerChrysler's

Indian project

Leading auto manufacturer DaimlerChrysler that has been developing concepts for future automobiles is now working on alternative fuels such as the fuel cell and the bio-diesel fuel. With the methanol-powered NECAR fuel cell vehicles, bio-methanol can also be blended with conventional gasoline to run conventional internal combustion engines to a certain extent without engine modifications.

The same holds true for the biodiesel from the Jatropha biomass. In the course of the project, it will establish two small plantations on eroded land in two climatic regions of India (sub-humid in Orissa and semi-arid in Gujarat). These Jatropha curcas oilseed tree plantations are expected to recover eroded soils and render them usable for agricultural purposes again, as well as to produce biooil that can be used for bio-diesel production.

The Hohenheim University ? Institute for Animal Production in the Tropics and Subtropics, Germany ? has extensive experience with Jatropha plantations in other parts of the world. The third partner is the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), a Government owned industrial research institute in India with a mandate to reclaim wasteland in India. Jatropha curcas is an indigenous oilseed tree capable of thriving on wasteland.

Development of wasteland and production and use of bio-diesel are high-priority areas for the government and hence continuation of the activity after the project period is ensured. The Indian project partner, the CSMCRI, is one of the agencies given the mandate to reclaim wasteland through fuel plantations. The proposed project ideally fits into this context and could constitute a model for large-scale recovery of wasteland along with local development. The `Test-Phase' of the bio-diesel project in India involves running an unmodified C-Class Mercedes-Benz on bio-diesel for over 5,000 km.

This will also demonstrate the viability of bio diesel as a suitable alternative to conventional fuels, especially in the Indian context.

Through this trial run, DaimlerChrysler will conduct further tests for emission properties, power and drive systems compatibility. The test car powered by bio-diesel travelled from Pune, through Bangalore, Kochi, Coimbatore, Chennai and other key southern cities. It then came back to Pune and subsequently set out for the concluding phase of the test run. In this second phase, the first stop for the team was Mumbai, followed by Ahmedabad and Jaipur, and finally at Delhi. The route had been designed in such a manner that it offered a wide range of driving conditions. The road test is expected to offer valuable findings with respect to the characteristics of bio-diesel under demanding terrains and weather conditions.

Orissa and Gujarat are two States with contrasting climatic and socio-economic characteristics. Orissa is one of the backward States. In spite of its problems, it has been able to attract considerable industrial investment because of its rich mineral resources. High industrial activity has resulted in higher environmental pollution in the State. Orissa has about seven million hectares of wasteland under sub-humid climatic conditions. Gujarat, on the other hand, is among the most industrialised States, and attracts domestic and multinational investment into various sectors, mainly because of its favourable policy environment and a traditionally industrious population. The State has a literacy rate of about 70 per cent (62 per cent in rural areas). In spite of high industrialisation, about 72 per cent of the total population in rural areas continues to be engaged in agricultural activities.

The State has about ten million hectares of semi-arid wasteland and high industrial pollution. Jatropha species occur wildly in many parts of India and oil extracted from its seeds has been found suitable for conversion into bio-diesel. Jatropha can grow on poor degraded soils and is able to ensure reasonable production of seeds with very little input. It is not grazed by animals and is highly pest and disease resistant. The time taken for nut yield is between two and five years, based on soil and rainfall conditions. Yields vary from 0.5 to 12 tonnes annually, based on soil and rainfall conditions (Makkar and Becker, 1999). The seed kernels contain about 60 per cent oil that can be converted into bio-diesel by transesterification. Jatropha plantations yield over long periods of over 30 years.

Watch out for the fuel of the future.

Tutu Dhawan

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.