Satish Lele satish.lele@gmail.com

Keeping in view the importance of developing cheaper and cleaner forms of energy, the Ministry of Railways have set up a new centralized organization to deal with all related aspects. Bio-diesel forms one of the key thrust areas in future energy planning in the Railways and they have taken up Jatropha plantation in a major way and have already planted more than 2 crore saplings all over the country. Since the efforts thus far have been disjointed, Railways would like to carry out further activities in a planned, systematic and coordinated manner. It can be planted along entire track length across Indian Railways, both sides of which can be profitably used for cropping. Railways would like to involve some experts in these projects and also identify organizations / NGOs / farmer communities / villages who could carry out various activities. For details contact Mr. Anuj Prakash, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Indian Railways Central Organization for Alternate Fuels, M: 91-9868868206. greenrailways@gmail.com.
There is no scope in near future, for BioDiesel Plant without back to back Jatropha Plantation. Currently 3 plants are producing BioDiesel in Maharashtra, India. These three are 20 years old plants, producing fine chemicals in the past. These plants are using imported Used Oil or non-edible Palm Oil Fractions, as raw material. The present capacity of these units together is 150,000 liters per day, but these can produce 500,000 liters per day, if raw material is available. There are many other old plants, which can be easily converted to BioDiesel Plant with minor modifications. The number of new grass root plants are struggling for completion.
BioDiesel manufacturers in India, are currently facing a big hurdle : Collection, Procurement, Transport and Storage of Jatropha / Pongamia (Karanj) / Castor Seeds. Most of the plantations are currently going on in the small farms of 1 to 10 acres. The quantity of seeds produced from such farms will be few tons, available in pockets, spread all over the states.
Collecting these and storing at a central place where a BioDiesel plant can be set up, is a logistical nightmare. Farmers may get higher price for their seeds, for consumption of oil as fuel for heating and lighting and may use it locally. He can use cake as Organic Fertilizer. Also the availability of seeds is once a year (if land is rain fed) or once in six months (if land is irrigated). Initially Jatropha oil will be available, only during harvesting, for one or two months, once or twice a year. Jatropha oil hydrolyses on storage and then simple trans-esterification process can not be used for BioDiesel manufacture. To run BioDiesel plant throughout the year, seeds will have to be stored for rest of the 8 months. This will require huge inventory and will lead to huge finance costs.
The Ministry of Rural Development, which is set to coordinate the national mission on biofuel when it is approved, estimates that there are already between 500,000 and 600,000 hectares of jatropha growing across India.

Initially, most of the oil will be used as it is for heating in stoves, and for lighting in lanterns since it will be easier for farmer to process the seeds locally, and he can get better value for his produce locally. It will also be used in Diesel Engine based Electricity Generating sets, Pump Sets, Heavy Farm Machinery, which can run on high viscosity oil. The requirement for this sector is 20 to 25 million tons per year. Looking at current rate of production of Jatropha Oil, this sector will use most of the oil produced for next five years and no oil will be available from small farmers, for Manufacture of BioDiesel.

In this scenario both large and small plants will have problems for at least next few years. Procurement of seeds locally, is going to be biggest challenge. To overcome that, Jatropha Plantations should be set up on large plots of land. For a BioDiesel Plant of 1,000 liters per day, 500 acres or 200 Hectares (2 square kilometers) of Plantation is required. For bigger plants, larger plantations are required. These can be as patches of plantations of 500 acres in one place, scattered all over a state. This will lead to a lot of investment in plantations. A lot of employment will be generated through plantation activities. Rural people will get employment locally, and need not go to large cities to work and earn a living.

1. In India 70% of the population lives in Rural Areas, and depend on Cow Dung and Firewood as main source of fuel for Cooking and Kerosine as Lighting Fuel. The requirement for this sector is 20 to 25 million tons of oil equivalent per year. Cow Dung and Firewood will be slowly replaced by Jatropha / Pongamia / Castor oil. In many developed countries gas is used for heating and electricity for lighting.

2. In India, edible vegetable oils are in short supply and India needs to import 45% of total requirements (600,000 tons) per year, to bridge the gap. Used kitchen oil is practically not available, as it is used till the end due to shortage. In many developed countries vegetable oils (Rapeseed, Soy, Palm, Corn, Animal Tallow) are in excess of their local requirements of edible oils. They have to dispose off these oils and converting these to BioDiesel as fuel is best option for them for disposal.

3. India has best climate and rainfall for growing Jatropha and Cheap labour for Harvesting. Most developed countries lack these two.