Presented by Abhishek Neupane 06105003

Biodiesel refers to a diesel-equivalent processed fuel consisting of short chain alkyl (methyl or ethyl) esters, made by transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats, which can be used (alone, or blended with conventional diesel fuel) in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles.Wikipedia.com

Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

At present, India is producing only 30% of the total petroleum fuels required. The remaining 70% is being imported, which costs about Rs. 80,000 crore every year. It is an astonishing fact that mixing of 5% bio-diesel fuel to the present diesel fuel can save about Rs. 4000 crore every year. It is estimated that India will be able to produce 288 metric tonnes of bio-diesel by the end of 2012, which will supplement 41.14% of the total demand of diesel fuel consumption in India. The planning commission of India has launched a bio-fuel project in 200 districts from 18 states in India. It has recommended two plant species, viz. jatropha (Jatropha curcas) and karanja (Pungamia pinnata) for bio-diesel production. The recent auto fuel policy document states that bio-fuels are efficient, eco-friendly and 100% natural energy alternative to petroleum fuels.

Bio-diesel is being made from virgin or used vegetable oils (both edible & non-edible) and animal fats. Sunflower & Rapeseed is the raw material used in Europe whereas Soyabean is used in USA. At present, USA uses 50 million gallons and European countries use 350 million gallons of bio-diesel annually. Biodiesel can be blended in any ratio with petroleum diesel fuel. Worldwide trend is to initiate the programme with 2-5% blending and increase it to 20% and thereafter 100% in a phased manner. USA uses B20 and B100 while in European countries 5 15% blends are being used. France is the country which uses 50% of bio-diesel mixed with diesel fuel. Brazil opened a commercial biodiesel refinery in March 2005. It is capable of producing 12 million liters (3.2 million gallons) per year of biodiesel fuel. Feedstocks can be a variety of sunflower seeds, soybeans, or castor beans.

Bio-diesel production is not something new, because the concept of using vegetable oil as fuel dates back to 1895. Rudolf Diesel developed the first diesel engine which was run with vegetable oil in 1900. The first engine was run using groundnut oil as fuel. Rudolf Diesel said, The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time. After umpteen decades, the awareness about environment rose among the people to search for an alternative fuel that could burn with less pollution. Rudolf Diesels prediction is becoming true today with more and more bio-diesel being used all over the world. On August 31, 1937, G. Chavanne of the University of Brussels (Belgium) was granted a patent for a "Procedure for the transformation of vegetable oils for their uses as fuels Belgian Patent 422,877. This patent described the alcoholysis (often referred to as transesterification) of vegetable oils using methanol and ethanol in order to separate the fatty acids from the glycerol by replacing the glycerol by short linear alcohols. This appears to be the first account of the production of what is known as "biodiesel" today.

It can be stored just like the petroleum diesel fuel and hence does not require separate infrastructure. The use of bio-diesel in conventional diesel engines results in substantial reduction of un-burnt hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matters (but NOX about 2 % higher) Biodiesel has almost no sulphur (0.05%) and has about 10 % built-in oxygen which helps in better combustion. Its higher Cetane number (> 51 as against 48 in diesel) improves the ignition quality even when blended in the petroleum diesel. Require very little or no engine modifications because bio diesel has properties similar to petroleum diesel fuels. Its higher flash point (>100 as against 35 in diesel) is good from safety point of view.

In most of the countries the cost of Bio diesel is much lesser than diesel because of the subsidies provided.

A variety of oils can be used to produce biodiesel. These include:

Virgin oil; rapeseed and soybean oils are most commonly used, soybean oil alone accounting for about ninety percent of all fuel stocks; It also can be obtained from karanja, Jatropha and other crops such as mustard, flax, sunflower, palm oil, hemp, and even algae. Waste vegetable oil (WVO); Animal fats including tallow, lard, yellow grease, chicken fat, and the by-products of the production of Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil. Sewage. A company in New Zealand has successfully developed a system for using sewage waste as a substrate for algae and then producing bio-diesel

AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

INDIAN AND OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

In these 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. In these countries farming is Mechanized and low in employment generation. Hence only those crops which can be mechanized can be grown. Most developed countries lack proper climatic condition for Jatropha farming.

In India, edible vegetable oils are in short supply and India needs to import 10% of total requirements and they are expensive than Jatropha and Karanj oil.Hence India follows Jatropha and Karanj Oil route. In India, the Jatropha and Karanj farming will be manual. This will generate employment opportunities for rural and unskilled workers. India has best climate and rainfall for growing Jatropha and Cheap labour for Harvesting.

Crop corn (maize) soybean mustard seed rice rapeseed jatropha oil palm tallow

kg oil/ha 145 375 481 696 1,000 1,590 5,000 5,500

litres oil/ha 172 446 572 828 1,190 1,892 5,950 6,545

lbs oil/acre 129 335 430 622 893 1,420 4,465 4,912

US gal/acre 18 48 61 88 127 202 635 699

Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulents, shrubs and trees (some are deciduous, like Jatropha curcas L.), from the family Euphorbiaceae. Originating in the Caribbean, the Jatropha was spread as a valuable hedge plant to Africa and Asia & INDIA by Portuguese traders. Medicinal Use:- The seeds can be used as a remedy for constipation, wounds can be dressed with the sap, and the leaves can be boiled to obtain a malaria and fever remedy. General Use:- The oil has been used for illumination, soap, candles and as raw material for cosmetic products. The bark of Jatropha curcas yields a dark blue dye which is used for colouring cloth, fishing nets and lines. It is a wild growing hardy plant well adapted to harsh conditions of soil and climate. It can grow on almost any type of soil, even on the poorest stony soils and rock crevices. Its water requirement is extremely low and it can withstand long periods of drought by shedding most of its leaves to reduce transpiration losses. It is easily propagated by seeds or cuttings and grows rapidly. It may be cut or lopped at any desired height and is suited as a hedge plant. Unlike the common believe that the plant is highly resistant to pest and diseases.

The area shown in Red is fertile (Food Basins where Jatropha plantations are unviable) while that shown in Pink are desert (where it is difficult to grow Jatropha). It can be grown in all areas shown in green.

Jatropha Plantation by Tree Oils India Ltd. as seen in April 2004

Same Plantation as seen in June 2005

Transestrification is crucial for producing biodiesel from oils. The transesterification process is the reaction of a triglyceride (fat/oil) with an bioalcohol to form esters and glycerol.

Catalyst is usually a strong alkaline (NaOH, KOH or sodium silicate) medium.

Rs 15.61/litre* with seed price as Rs 4/kg (TERI) Rs 30/litre* with seed price as Rs 7/kg (CSMCRI, Bhavnagar) Rs 20/litre* with seed price as Rs 5/Kg (Planning Commission)

* Excludes Excise duties / Sales tax but includes interest / transport /profits to manufacturer Ex-Refinery Price of Diesel for oil cos (excluding excise/sales tax) is between Rs 18 Rs 25 /litre with crude oil price variation from $45/barrel to $ 75/barrel.

The ex-President of India and Eminent Scientist, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has understood the importance of Jatropha and he advocates its plantation in every lecture. He has also planted 800 Jatropha plants in Presidential (Mogul) Gardens.

Billionaires Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, C Sivasankaran, Vinod Khosla, founder of Sun Microsystems, and Nemish Shah joint partner of Enam Financial Services, are investing in bio-fuel makers quietly, expecting that bio-fuel will have a big play in the coming years as the world looks for a viable alternative to the fast depleting oil reserves.

Auto giant DaimlerChrysler has been researching, planting and testing jatropha and a biodiesel derived from its oil for the past three years in Gujarat, in northwest India. Tata Chemicals will be setting up its first bio-ethanol plant in Maharashtra, with an investment of Rs 50 crore and a capacity of 30 kilo litres per day. LT Overseas has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Madhya Pradesh to plant Jatropha on 20,000 hectares of wasteland. The Emami Group, the maker of face creams, plans to commence commercial production of bio-diesel by the end of this calendar year. BP is to fund a $9.4 million project by TERI in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to demonstrate the feasibility of producing biodiesel from Jatropha Curcas. Pune-based Shirke Biohealthcare Pvt. Lld., is setting up a refinery, with a capacity to process 5,000 liters biodiesel per day from Jatropha oil.

Godrej plans Indian Rupees 5 billion for bio-fuel projects : Godrej Agrovet Ltd is planning to invest over Indian Rupees 5 billion, for jatropha and palm oil cultivation in the states of Gujarat and Mizoram. D1 Oil plc. : A UK producer of green fuel, Newcastle-based D1 Oil plc, has 10,000 hectares of the crop planted in India and its target of 267,000 hectares by the end of 2006 is on track. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India's largest business is planning to enter the bio-fuel segment in a big way. To begin with, the company has earmarked 200 acres of land at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to cultivate jatropha, which can yield high quality bio-diesel. Epic Energy, a small Mumbai-based company, also plans to cultivate bio-diesel (Jatropha) in a big way. Mahindra & Mahindra is all set to launch its first biofuel-powered vehicles for commercial use by this year-end. The company is at the advanced test phase for B-100 (bio diesel) engines.

1. 2.

Reasons Cited Were: Only one percent of suns energy is stored in plant, fertiliser is added and then plants harvested thus no real energy gained in Bio fuel. Producing Bio fuels sometime results into Deforestation which disturbs biodiversity.

Dr. Hartmut Michel, the 1998 Nobel Prize winner for chemistry, cautioned the government against rushing into biofuel development saying that investing in biofuel development was counterproductive.

Taiwanese Yuan T. Lee, one of the three 1986 Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry, said biofuel production might not be the right solution for countries with small land areas. Numerous critics believe that Biofuel is not a long term solution.

Bio-diesel is non-toxic and readily bio degradable. Blending of bio-diesel with diesel fuel increases engine efficiency. The higher flash point makes the storage safer. Bio-diesel is an oxygenated fuel, thus implying that its oxygen content plays a role in making fatty compounds suitable as diesel fuel by cleaner burning. Bio-diesel does not produce greenhouse effects, because the balance between the amount of CO2 emissions and the amount of CO2 absorbed by the plants producing vegetable oil is equal. Bio-diesel can be used directly in compression ignition engines with no substantial modifications of the engine. Bio-diesel contains no sulphur and is generally suitable to match the future European regulations which limit the sulphur content to 0.020.5%. Biodiesel has a higher cetane rating than petrodiesel, which can improve engine performance and reduce emissions.

Methyl ester of bio-diesel (B100) can be directly used in diesel engines without any modifications for short term with slightly interior performance than that of diesel. Jatropha curcas holds immense untapped opportunities for farmers and rural entrepreneurs to make money and for the populace to replace diesel with home grown, environmental friendly biodiesel. Sufficient land is available for cultivating Jatropha to meet the 5 million hecters target as set in the 10th plan document, the challenge would be to suitably allocate and efficiently utilise this land. A blend of 20% by volume of bio-diesel fuel in diesel does not affect any of the measured performance or emission characteristics and is best alternative fuel for diesel.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Bio-diesel as an alternative fuel for diesel enginesA review by A. Murugesan, C. Umarani, R. Subramanian & N. Nedunchezhian JatrophaPalm biodiesel blends: An optimum mix for Asia Rakesh Sarin, Meeta Sharma, S. Sinharay, R.K. Malhotra Biodiesel as an alternative motor fuel: Production and policies in the European Union by Kahraman Bozbas Websites:www.svlele.com www.wikipedia.com www.sciencedirect.com www.biodieseltechnologies.com

Thank You