Rashtriya Krishi (English)

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Pongamia pinnata:A Bio-Diesel Tree Spp of India


Affiliations
1 Department of Agronomy, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (U.P.), India
2 Department of Soil Science, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (U.P.), India
     

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Biofuel development in India centres mainly on the cultivation and processing of Jatropha plant seeds which are very rich in oil (40%). The drivers for this are historic, functional, economic, environmental, moral and political. Jatropha oil has been used in India for several decades as biodiesel for the diesel fuel requirements of remote rural and forest communities; jatropha oil can be used directly after extraction (i.e. without refining) in diesel generators and engines. Jatropha has the potential to provide economic benefits at the local level since under suitable management it has the potential to grow in dry marginal non-agricultural lands, thereby allowing villagers and farmers to leverage non-farm land for income generation. As well, increased Jatropha oil production delivers economic benefits to India on the macroeconomic or national level as it reduces the nation’s fossil fuel import bill for diesel production (the main transportation fuel used in the country); minimizing the expenditure of India’s foreign-currency reserves for fuel allowing India to increase its growing foreign currency reserves (which can be better spent on capital expenditures for industrial inputs and production). And since Jatropha oil is carbon-neutral, large-scale production will improve the country’s carbon emissions profile. Finally, since no food producing farmland is required for producing this biofuel (unlike corn or sugar cane ethanol, or palm oil diesel).
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  • Agarwal, A.K. (1998). Vegetable oils verses diesel fuel: development and use of biodiesel in a compression ignition engine, TIDE, 8(3) : 191-204.

  • Haas, W. and Mittelbach, M. (2000). Detoxification experiments with the seed oil from Jatrophacurcas. Industr. Crops Prod., 12(2) : 111-118.

  • Katwal, R.P.S. and Soni, P.L. (2003). Biofuels: an opportunity for socio-economic development and cleaner environment, Indian For., 129(8) : 939-949.


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  • Pongamia pinnata:A Bio-Diesel Tree Spp of India

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Authors

Ashish Dwivedi
Department of Agronomy, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (U.P.), India
Vineet Kumar
Department of Soil Science, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (U.P.), India

Abstract


Biofuel development in India centres mainly on the cultivation and processing of Jatropha plant seeds which are very rich in oil (40%). The drivers for this are historic, functional, economic, environmental, moral and political. Jatropha oil has been used in India for several decades as biodiesel for the diesel fuel requirements of remote rural and forest communities; jatropha oil can be used directly after extraction (i.e. without refining) in diesel generators and engines. Jatropha has the potential to provide economic benefits at the local level since under suitable management it has the potential to grow in dry marginal non-agricultural lands, thereby allowing villagers and farmers to leverage non-farm land for income generation. As well, increased Jatropha oil production delivers economic benefits to India on the macroeconomic or national level as it reduces the nation’s fossil fuel import bill for diesel production (the main transportation fuel used in the country); minimizing the expenditure of India’s foreign-currency reserves for fuel allowing India to increase its growing foreign currency reserves (which can be better spent on capital expenditures for industrial inputs and production). And since Jatropha oil is carbon-neutral, large-scale production will improve the country’s carbon emissions profile. Finally, since no food producing farmland is required for producing this biofuel (unlike corn or sugar cane ethanol, or palm oil diesel).

References