The Hindu Business Line : Rlys to make bio-diesel viable — Trains to run on vegetable, used frying oil

IT will be a turning point in the use of non-conventional fuels when such a big diesel guzzler as Indian Railways runs its first train entirely on a blend of vegetable oil and `used frying oil', something that Railway officials say is only a year or so away.

The global increase in fossil fuel prices has in fact expedited their project.

Southern Railway is readying to run a locomotive on a 20 per cent blend of `bio-diesel' on August 10, International Bio-diesel Day.

"We will gradually increase the percentage of vegetable oil to run the locomotive entirely and permanently on bio-diesel," said Mr M. Jayasingh, Chief Workshop Manager, Loco Works, Chennai, who is in charge of the project. Indian Railways is ready to run every diesel locomotive on vegetable oil; what remains to be sorted out is a business issue - how to procure and produce vegetable oil in viable quantities and prices, said Mr Jayasingh.

In fact, availability alone was the reason why there was no progress after the first one-time run of the Amritsar-Delhi Shatabdi on a five per cent blend of bio-diesel in December 2002, said Mr Jayasingh.

Indian Railways has drawn up a long-term plan to overcome the fuel's shortage and unviability, according to Mr Jayasingh. At Chennai, a small plant under the bio-diesel project processes vegetable oil from the seeds of two plants - one the perennial shrub Jatropha curcas, and the other the tree Pongamia pinnata (known as Pongam in Tamil and Karanj in Hindi). This is supplemented with used `frying oil' acquired by the Railways by arrangement with the Sheraton group of hotels in Chennai.

"The processed bio-diesel from the former seeds costs almost Rs 30 per litre, more expensive than the current diesel price of around Rs 25 per litre, but which is certainly going to increase," said Mr Jayasingh. Used frying oil costs around Rs 6 per litre after processing. "As volumes increase the cost of bio-diesel will come down," he said.

What is produced currently keeps four road vehicles of his department running - one Mahindra Voyager, two Mahindra jeeps and one Tata Sumo. By the end of the month, a new plant of capacity 250 litres per day will come up in Chennai.

Supplies will increase with Indian Railways having already planted Jatropha (which is drought resistant as well) and Karanj in the thousands of acres along its tracks across the country. With the Railways there is no dearth of land, pointed out Mr Jayasingh. In two or three years, the plantations will start to regularly yield seeds. Indian Railways already have an arrangement with Indian Oil Corporation which will get the oil processed, a matter that the Lucknow-based Research, Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) of the Railways is working upon.

Although bio-diesel currently does not appear very attractive on the cost front, there are other advantages such as the constancy of availability, lesser dependence on imports and better insulation from fluctuating prices, said Mr Jayasingh.

"It is a renewable resource. Emissions can be 60 per cent to 100 per cent lower than with diesel, and particulate matter 60 per cent less. Harmful constituents such as sulphur are not present at all."

According to Dr Udipi Srinivasa, Chief Programme Executive at SuTRA (Sustainable Transformation of Rural Areas), a research group of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, bio-diesel has 85 per cent of the calorific value of diesel and can replace diesel for almost all functions.

SuTRA, which has been a mover of sorts, having made several presentations to the railways on bio-fuels, has projects going in some villages of Tumkur, where 60-plus watt electricity generators run on Karanj oil.

"The tree can be grown everywhere in the country, from sea level up to a height of 1,500 metres," he said. For purposes of calculation, every 10 million hectares of Karanj tree cover can give 25 million tonnes of diesel substitute.

Figures issued by public sector oil companies say Indian consumption of diesel was officially at 7.36 lakh tonnes during the past year.

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Rlys to make bio-diesel viable — Trains to run on vegetable, used frying oil