The Hindu Business Line : Bio fuels: `Meet local energy needs first'

Hyderabad May 14 Amidst flurry of activities with regard to biodiesel and its mandatory blend with fossil fuel, an interesting argument is slowly gaining currency - that the non-edible grade vegetable oils should be used locally to attend to local energy needs.

Besides making the farmers self-sufficient in their power needs, this `Gandhian model' would help the country retain vital soil nutrients back in the Indian soil as it stresses on using the oil cakes, which are being exported in huge quantities.

"These can be used locally to supply energy to agricultural activities at a very cheap rate," Mr P. Radhakrishna, Advisor (Centre for Energy, Environment, Urban Governance and Infrastructure Development) of Administrative Staff College of India, told Business Line.

Quoting a World Bank study, he said the farmers on an average needed 550-600 units of power annually.

"We should have a national policy facilitating the farmers to set up medium-sized biogas plants," he said.

Moreover, if these plants were to be taken up and bundled under a national project, the country could generate huge number of carbon credits, providing additional income to the farmers.

Calling for a serious relook at proposals to use vegetable and non-edible grade oils for blending with fossil fuels, he said domestic oil production generated 13-14.5 million tonnes of oil cake worth Rs 5,000 crore.

"Most of it is exported, leaving the country bereft of vital soil nutrients," he said.

Suggesting that India should import oil seeds and not oil as it did at present, he said one hectare of oil seed crop could produce about 100 cubic metres of biogas, equivalent to standard natural gas in terms of calorific value.

Considering the fact that India had 24 million hectares of oil crop, the country could easily bet on an energy potential from oilcake that was equivalent to 2.30 million tonnes of coal or 1,155 million litres of diesel, or 475 MW of electricity. For this, the country should discourage export of oil cake.

More Stories on : Non-conventional Energy | Oilseeds & Edible Oil | Cultivation

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