India’s petroleum situation in the past several years has led to focusing attention on research and development of alternate fuels. Use of fossil fuels at a much more rapid rate than can be sustained by nature has led to degradation of environment and fast depletion in their reserves. There is strong environmental pressure to eliminate or at least greatly reduce these emissions on one hand and substitution of petroleum fuels to control the burgeoning import bill on other. Serious research is underway in India to search for renewable, environmentally friendly alternative sources of energy. Biodiesel which is produced by transesterification of triglycerides with methanol has become increasingly important for a country like India. The major benefit of biodiesel production is that there is no need to follow the uni-focal approach of concentrating and utilizing the same vegetable oil in each and every corner of the globe. Each country or region can proceed in the production/utilization of particular oil, depending upon the climate and economy. In developed countries, most of the biodiesel are produced from variety of edible oil like soybean oil, rapeseed oil, canola oil or sunflower oil. However demand of edible oil being higher than its domestic production, there is no possibility of diverting this oil for production of biodiesel in India.

There are many plant species such as Jatropha curcas (Ratan Jyot), Pongamia pinnata (Karanja), Mesua ferrea (Nahar) etc. which bear seeds rich in oil. Around 450 such species are found in our country, but Jatropha and Karanja and Nahar are the three species which are abundantly found in NE region of India. North eastern part of India has a great potential of producing biodiesel from these species. Utilization of biodiesel in diesel engine and farm machinery has enormous potential for rural development in terms of employment opportunity for youth and infrastructure development in NE region. The by-product of the oil extraction from seeds and biodiesel production process could also be utilized for organic fertilizer, biogas production and for soap making.

In India, biodiesel production from variety of non edible oils have been pursued by many organization and the demonstration phase of national mission on bio-diesel has already been launched on April 28, 2006 by Ministry of Rural Development at New Delhi. During this phase the promotion of Jatropha cultivation and setting up demonstration oil extraction and transesterification facilities shall be taken up along with dissemination of information.

The biodiesel has many positive attributes and they are being summarized as:

1. It is plant-derived, not petroleum-derived, and as such its combustion eliminates life cycle carbon-dioxide emissions, a “greenhouse” gas since carbon dioxide emitted during combustion is recycled in the photosynthesis process occurring in the plants used as raw materials for biodiesel production.

2. It can be domestically produced, offering the possibility of reducing petroleum imports.

3. The higher Cetane number of biodiesel compared to fossil diesel indicates the potential for higher engine performance.

4. It is biodegradable

5. Relative to conventional diesel fuel, biodiesel reduces emission of particulate matter by 40%, unburned hydrocarbons by 68%, carbon monoxide by 44%, sulphates by 100%, PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) by 80%, and carcinogenic nitrated PAHs by 90%, on average. The use of biodiesel complements the working of the catalyst or and can help a current Euro-I vehicles attain the Euro-III standards, thus significantly reducing the environmental pollution.

6. The superior lubricating property of biodiesel increases the engine efficiency.

7. The higher flash point of biodiesel makes it safe to store.

8. The biodiesel molecules are simple hydrocarbon chains, containing no sulphur which is concern in crude oil derived petroleum products.

9. Biodiesel contains higher amount of oxygen (up to 10%), which ensures complete combustion of hydrocarbons.

10. Use of biodiesel will lead to increased energy independence as well as increased economic activity from fuel production and utilization.

11. Generation of new employment opportunities in cultivation, processing and production of biodiesel.

12. Addition to the renewable energy options for decentralized distributed generation (DDG) of electricity and for motive power applications (water pumping, milling, etc.) in energy deficient rural India

13. Greening of wastelands and regeneration of degraded forest-lands, thereby helping in eco restoration and preventing further land degradation

14. Empowerment of village community through enhanced livelihood opportunities

1. The NE states have very few industries causing major unemployment. Such a project shall help in creating a hub for biodiesel entrepreneurship in this region.

2. The large scale availability of unutilized non edible oil seeds in wild will set a good beginning.

3. Most of the states have encouraged large scale cultivation of Jatropha and Pongamia as cash crops.

4. Land degradation due to petroleum exploration and refining has taken place in this region. Land degradation through shifting cultivation (Jhumming) in hill districts is unavoidable process. Such a project shall promote TBO cultivation on this type pf degraded land.

5. Large numbers of villages are not electrified specially in Brahamputra basin nd in remote hilly areas. The biodiesel based decentralized power sources shall set an example of rural electrification and energy security.

The following organizations are actively working in R&D Work related to biodiesel and technology demonstration.

• Punjab Agriculture University is actively involved in R&D work on plant oils and their esters (Biodiesel) as alternate fuel for diesel engines.

• Indian Institute of Petroleum is actively pursuing the utilization of non-edible oils for the production of biodiesel, additives for lubrication oils saturated and unsaturated alcohols and fatty acids and many other value added products.

• IICT, Hyderabad. IICT is working on the development of a green process for biodiesel using solid catalysts and enzymes.

• Chattisgarh Biofuel Board is actively engaged in Jatropha cultivation and biodiesel technology demonstration programs.

• Uttranchal Biofuel Board is working in large scale cultivation of Jatropha nd other oil bearing plants and setting up a biodiesel plant/=.

• IIT Delhi has conducted studies on the utilization of biodiesel of non-edible oils such as Karanja, Jatropha, Neem, Mahua & Linseed and has set up a biodiesel production facility of 100litres per batch. They are also executing a biodiesel demonstration project in the state of Orissa.

• IOCL R&D Centre has conducted field trial on many vehicles with different percentage of biodiesel. Transesterification process has been optimized and patented by R&D Centre of IOCL. Technology know-how has been transferred to M/s. Venus Ethoxyethers, Goa for commercialization.

• The Department of Bio-energy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has studied various parameters to optimize the process conditions for maximum biodiesel yield for alkali-catalyzed transesterification of Jatropha oil in 20 liter biodiesel reactor.

• CSMCRI has developed a simplified process for biodiesel production from the oil complying with Euro-3 specifications for free fatty acid methyl ester. The biodiesel developed by CSMCRI has been evaluated at Daimler Chrysler AG and found to be matching all specifications.

• Field trial of biodiesel has been done by Tata Motors Ltd., Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., Wartsila India ltd. etc.

• Trains have successfully been run by Indian Railway on 5-10% blends of biodiesel in association with IOCL.

• HPCL is carrying out field trials in association with BEST, Mumbai.

• Daimler Chrysler India completed first phase of the field trials on two C-Class Mercedes-Benz cars powered by pure biodiesel and clocked over 5900 Km under hot and humid conditions.

• NOVOD has initiated test run by blending 10% of biodiesel in collaboration with IIT-Delhi in Tata Sumo and Swaraj Mazda vehicles.

• Haryana State Transport buses have been run by using biodiesel in association with IOCL.

• Garware Chemicals has started commercial production in its 100 tpd plant at Aurangabad.

• Southern Online has started commercial biodiesel production in its 30tpd plant at Secunderabad.

• Nova Biofuels, Panipat to start biodiesel production its 30tpd plant at Panipat. Many small biodiesel production units ranging from 1tpd to 5 tpd are producing biodiesel.

• Williamson Magor Bio-fuel Limited has taken up plantation on contractual basis in 9 districts of Assam and so far covered 22,000 ha area.