A Review of Strategies for Sustainable Bio Diesel Feed Stock Generation In India
Abstract
It is estimated that by 2011, 20 percent of bio-energy needs of India should be met by biodiesel. To meet these expectations it would require 12 to 13 million hectares of biodiesel feed stock plantations. Currently biodiesel is produced using non-edible oil from trees like Jatropha. This strategy of propagating jatropha as primary bio diesel feed stock has certain drawbacks. This paper addresses the shortcomings in the present strategy and suggests few alternatives.
Farmers can be encouraged to grow short duration annual crops like Castor, Sweet sorghum which can be used to produce biodiesel and ethanol. Alternate plantation in wasteland with more oil yielding trees like Calophyllum inophyllum (undi) with 50-73 % oil, Diploknema (Aisandra) with 60% oil and Simarouba glauca (Lakshmi tharu) with 60-75 % oil. In addition, Microalgae have much faster growth-rates than terrestrial crops. The per unit area yield of oil from algae is estimated to be from between 4.6 to 18.4 l/m2 per year.
There is a need to develop a holistic view of encouraging alternate multipurpose crop plantation strategies and methods of producing biofuels with out affecting the local ecology and farmer’s needs of food, fodder and fuel wood for cooking.
