VICE CHANCELLOR DR C RAMASAMY VISITS EBT’S BIO-FUEL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
COIMBATORE, INDIA
26th October 2006

Dr. C. Ramasamy, Vice Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore visited the Research Farm of Bio-fuel Research and Development Centre (BRDC), the Research & Development Unit of Enhanced Bio-fuels and Technologies (EBT) Ltd, London, United Kingdom, on October 26, 2006. The centre was created with an investment of rupees three crores by Dr. Mark LM Quinn, Managing Director of EBT and is manned by 23 scientists of varying disciplines who are placed both in India and abroad.

The farm is situated in about 15 acres of land adjoining to N. G. G. O. Colony, Coimbatore where Jatropha curcus, the bio-fuel crop is planted. The vegetatively propagated crop is five months old and grown under drip irrigation. According to Dr. G. Arumugam, the CEO and Group Science Director of the centre, Jatropha curcus needs supplementary irrigation when soil moisture is depleted, and other management requirements such as that of any other cultivated agricultural crop, if continuous flowering and harvest are required to attain profitable yields.

Dr. Arumugam said that there is a need to develop a genetically uniform seed for planting to this cross pollinated crop, otherwise the variations in seed collected from naturally grown plants will not help to establish a plantation with uniform genetic material from which profitable yield can be harvested. The research efforts of the BRDC are focused on this goal of developing a genetically uniform seed for mass propagation of Jatropha curcus. Eighty two clones were screened out of 279 elite clones collected from different regions of India. Ten million wild plants have been planted at the BRDC Research Farm. Research is being undertaken to identify the best performing clones out of these eighty two. Seed and seedling orchards will be established in the near future from the seeds of these elite clones to increase the volume of planting material to ensure that planting areas can be covered with improved seeds to maximise profitable yields.

Dr. C. Ramasamy, Vice Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the centre in developing a genetically uniform seed. He also stressed the need for applying the principles of plant breeding and genetics to the improvement of Jatropha curcus and of releasing a variety that can ensure profitability to the farmers and planters who grow it. Caution is required when choosing planting material. Plantations made out of seedlings produced from seeds collected from wild plants are bound to have variations and to maintain them at a reasonable level of productivity, appropriate management technologies must be followed.

The Vice Chancellor said that the enthusiasm for bio-fuels must also be viewed against the backdrop of the country's thirst for oil, about 114 million tonnes every year, 75% of which is imported at a cost of Rs. 1,20,000 crore. About 112 million tonnes of oil is consumed solely by the transportation sector. He said that, although bio-fuel is actively supported by several developed countries in the world; most countries encourage production of bio-fuel from edible crops, whereas the Jatropha curcus proposed in India is a non edible crop. In USA, it is soya, in Germany it is rapeseed, in France it is sunflower and in Malaysia it is oil palm, All of these are edible oils and are actively encouraged for the production of bio-fuel in these countries. However, in India where edible oil is imported, promoting it as bio-fuel will create conflicting interests between the food and energy sectors. Therefore, the policy should be to develop the concept of bio-fuel from non-edible oil crops such as Jatropha, Pungam and Mahua. Of these, Jatropha has the advantage of being fast growing, and with uniform planting material, appropriate crop management and crop protection technologies profitable yields can be harvested.

The BRDC has evolved profitable agronomic practices such as nursery techniques, the use of bio-fertilizers and fertilizers and the spacing and method of planting that can ensure profitable yields. Research is focused on scheduling irrigation and developing a suitable intercrop which can be profitably grown along with the Jatropha plantation. Pests and diseases are also a serious issue when Jatropha is domesticated. The research programme at the centre includes the analysis of pests and diseases and the development of prophylactic and control measure strategies to prevent or mitigate yield loss.

It is not only cultivation but also the processing and byproduct utilization that can maximize profit from Jatropha, says Dr. Arumugam. For example, the seed cake produced after the extraction of oil can not be used as animal feed because of the presence of the toxic alkaloid, curcin in the cake. Curcin has anti-cancer and anti-tumor properties and therefore has a market in the pharmaceutical industry. Efforts are being made to develop commercially viable extraction procedures for curcin from Jatropha seed cake.

Another byproduct is glycerin which is obtained during transesterification of oil to convert it into bio-diesel. For each one tonne of bio-diesel, 100 kg of glycerin is obtained as a byproduct. There is no visible gap between demand and supply in the glycerin market and therefore the BRDC, in a joint venture with a US based company have developed a high value added product for which IPR is under process. R & D efforts are also underway at the BRDC to develop an aviation fuel using non-edible oil sources.

The BRDC also has taken research initiatives to produce bio-diesel from algae. Green algae contains about 70 per cent hydrocarbon, with a record 110 tonnes of crude oil per hectare, 40 times higher than the amount of oil in Jatropha. It will benefit bio-fuel industries in the country if technology is perfected to grow algae in bio-reactors as well as in open ponds. In this case, carbon dioxide from industrial flu gas can be profitably recycled to ensure faster multiplication of algae, so that more oil can be produced from each unit area. This will also help earn carbon credits in world carbon trading. One tonne of algal biomass will consume two tonnes of carbon dioxide and releases 1.6 tonnes of oxygen. Therefore this technology will help to mitigate global warming. Apart from these, hydrogen fuel, bio-ethanol, bio-plastic, omega3 compounds, pigments and protein rich animal feed are the byproducts from algae.