Humble jatropha shrub fuels India's first green trains
India is home to the world's largest railway network. Its trains transport millions of people each day to work and from the countryside to the cities. In a revolutionary first that promises to solve India's energy problems and radically reduce its fuel bills along with its pollution levels, two Indian railway trains are now running on a home-grown mix of diesel and jatropha biodiesel, the biofuel extracted from the seeds of the Jatropha curcas shrub.
For India, the green fuel could be the transport fuel of the future, with the present beset with woes of global energy shortages and rising fuel prices.
Chief minister of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh, who has set upon the task of growing jatropha with a missionary zeal, is the driving force behind the green train project. Ealier he launched a massive jatropha planting campaign that resulted in 3 million seedlings being planted in a single day.
The South East Central Railway (SECR), the highest profit-making zone of Indian Railways, is already running two narrow gauge trains in Chhattisgarh using the biofuel. The trains travel 300 km a day, to and from the state capital Raipur to Rajim (about 120 km in total), and from Raipur to Dhamtari (about 180 km).
"The railways have been mixing up to five percent jatropha biofuel with traditional diesel since July 22 for two trains -- the Raipur-Rajim and Raipur-Dhamtari. The experiment is proving to be a great success, and engines are working smoother and jerk free," said a triumphant Ajay Kumar Jaiswal, SECR's Raipur Railway division spokesperson.
"After a periodical review of three to six months, the railways will increase the quantum of biofuel mix with diesel and will seriously consider for using it on long-distance trains to save huge expenditure on imported diesel". India Railways spends an annual €34.8/US$43.6 million on diesel fuel.
India Railways is using 30 percent of its total land, about 5,000 hectares, for jatropha plantations. This year, 600,000 shrubs have been planted and another 700,000 more are on the anvil. This is being done all across northern India, including in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. And in a particularly big way in Chhattisgarh.
"We are determined to go in for mass plantations of jatropha and encourage farmers to adopt its cultivation for commercial use. I strongly believe that Chhattisgarh alone can make India an energy secure country through biofuels, by 2015,' Raman Singh said. Chhattisgarh has announced that it would plant 160 million saplings this financial year. It plans to take up an exhaustive programme on a million hectares of fallow land by 2012:
biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: jatropha :: India ::
In fact, on Sep 4 this year, thousands of volunteers in the state planted about two million jatropha saplings in just 11 hours to find a place in the Limca Book of Records - a move that also motivated people towards the plant that is such a rich source of bio-fuel.
The state government has asked New Delhi to unveil a national bio-diesel policy to help it become totally bio-fuel self-reliant state by year 2015.
It claims the bio-fuel rich plants have the potential to help India get over its annual requirement of 124 million metric tonnes of petroleum products, of which around 72 percent is met through imports at a cost of over Rs.1.5 trillion.
The arithmetic works to everybody's favour.
Bio diesel produces 80 percent less carbon dioxide and 100 percent less sulphur dioxide emissions and provides 90 percent reduction in cancer risks. It can be used alone or mixed in any ratio with mineral oil diesel fuel.
"One hectare of jatropha plantation yields on an average two tonnes of bio-diesel," said Chhattisgarh Biofuel Development Authority (CBDA) executive director S.K. Shukla.
"We are fortunate to have ample renewable resources, which can replace imported oil, strengthening the economy of the nation and also making it more self-reliant," he added.
The Chhattisgarh government, which has installed a bio-fuel plant in Raipur is currently producing 3,000 litres of jatropha bio-fuel a day and has announced steps to install bigger production units in other districts for public supply and larger commercial use.
"Bio diesel is an alternative fuel that can be used in diesel engines and provides power similar to conventional diesel fuel. The final product, bio diesel fuel, when used directly in a diesel engine will burn up to 75 percent cleaner then mineral oil diesel fuel," said C.R. Hazra, vice chancellor of the Indira Gandhi Agriculture University, Raipur.
"It is the most valuable form of renewable energy that can be used directly in any existing, unmodified diesel engine. Bio diesel fuel can be produced from oilseed plants such as jatropha curcas."
Acknowledging that it could be fuel of the future, the Indian government has launched the National Mission on Bio-Diesel with a view to finding cheap and renewable liquid fuel. Its report submitted in 2003 identified jatropha as the ideal oilseed to extract the oil for converting it into bio-diesel.
The government has given out Rs.490 million ($10 million) to nine states for raising jatropha seedlings in the nurseries, say officials.
The government has also announced the use of ethanol-blended petrol across India from November 1 even while tying up with Brazil, a world leader in the use of ethanol, for greater development and production of the alternative fuel in the country.
For India, the green fuel could be the transport fuel of the future, with the present beset with woes of global energy shortages and rising fuel prices.
Chief minister of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh, who has set upon the task of growing jatropha with a missionary zeal, is the driving force behind the green train project. Ealier he launched a massive jatropha planting campaign that resulted in 3 million seedlings being planted in a single day.
The South East Central Railway (SECR), the highest profit-making zone of Indian Railways, is already running two narrow gauge trains in Chhattisgarh using the biofuel. The trains travel 300 km a day, to and from the state capital Raipur to Rajim (about 120 km in total), and from Raipur to Dhamtari (about 180 km).
"The railways have been mixing up to five percent jatropha biofuel with traditional diesel since July 22 for two trains -- the Raipur-Rajim and Raipur-Dhamtari. The experiment is proving to be a great success, and engines are working smoother and jerk free," said a triumphant Ajay Kumar Jaiswal, SECR's Raipur Railway division spokesperson.
"After a periodical review of three to six months, the railways will increase the quantum of biofuel mix with diesel and will seriously consider for using it on long-distance trains to save huge expenditure on imported diesel". India Railways spends an annual €34.8/US$43.6 million on diesel fuel.
India Railways is using 30 percent of its total land, about 5,000 hectares, for jatropha plantations. This year, 600,000 shrubs have been planted and another 700,000 more are on the anvil. This is being done all across northern India, including in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. And in a particularly big way in Chhattisgarh.
"We are determined to go in for mass plantations of jatropha and encourage farmers to adopt its cultivation for commercial use. I strongly believe that Chhattisgarh alone can make India an energy secure country through biofuels, by 2015,' Raman Singh said. Chhattisgarh has announced that it would plant 160 million saplings this financial year. It plans to take up an exhaustive programme on a million hectares of fallow land by 2012:
biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: jatropha :: India ::
In fact, on Sep 4 this year, thousands of volunteers in the state planted about two million jatropha saplings in just 11 hours to find a place in the Limca Book of Records - a move that also motivated people towards the plant that is such a rich source of bio-fuel.
The state government has asked New Delhi to unveil a national bio-diesel policy to help it become totally bio-fuel self-reliant state by year 2015.
It claims the bio-fuel rich plants have the potential to help India get over its annual requirement of 124 million metric tonnes of petroleum products, of which around 72 percent is met through imports at a cost of over Rs.1.5 trillion.
The arithmetic works to everybody's favour.
Bio diesel produces 80 percent less carbon dioxide and 100 percent less sulphur dioxide emissions and provides 90 percent reduction in cancer risks. It can be used alone or mixed in any ratio with mineral oil diesel fuel.
"One hectare of jatropha plantation yields on an average two tonnes of bio-diesel," said Chhattisgarh Biofuel Development Authority (CBDA) executive director S.K. Shukla.
"We are fortunate to have ample renewable resources, which can replace imported oil, strengthening the economy of the nation and also making it more self-reliant," he added.
The Chhattisgarh government, which has installed a bio-fuel plant in Raipur is currently producing 3,000 litres of jatropha bio-fuel a day and has announced steps to install bigger production units in other districts for public supply and larger commercial use.
"Bio diesel is an alternative fuel that can be used in diesel engines and provides power similar to conventional diesel fuel. The final product, bio diesel fuel, when used directly in a diesel engine will burn up to 75 percent cleaner then mineral oil diesel fuel," said C.R. Hazra, vice chancellor of the Indira Gandhi Agriculture University, Raipur.
"It is the most valuable form of renewable energy that can be used directly in any existing, unmodified diesel engine. Bio diesel fuel can be produced from oilseed plants such as jatropha curcas."
Acknowledging that it could be fuel of the future, the Indian government has launched the National Mission on Bio-Diesel with a view to finding cheap and renewable liquid fuel. Its report submitted in 2003 identified jatropha as the ideal oilseed to extract the oil for converting it into bio-diesel.
The government has given out Rs.490 million ($10 million) to nine states for raising jatropha seedlings in the nurseries, say officials.
The government has also announced the use of ethanol-blended petrol across India from November 1 even while tying up with Brazil, a world leader in the use of ethanol, for greater development and production of the alternative fuel in the country.
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