MOU signed for cultivation of Jatropha in Pakistan

Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and Kijani Energy (KE), a sustainable energy company of Canada, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to focus on the development of large-scale cultivation of Jatropha Curcas L (Jatropha), which was an environmentally and cost-effective source of bio-diesel.

Chairman, PARC Dr. Zafar Altaf and Vice President KE Junaid Mirza signed the MoU. Dr Shahid Ahmad, Member Natural Resources Division; Dr Muhammad Munir, Member Plant Sciences Division and Dr Khalid Mehmood, PSO witnessed the signing of MoU.

Under the agreement both the organizations would jointly work for the promotion of Jatropha cultivation to develop bio-fuel culture in Pakistan. Objectives of the MoU was to undertake Jatropha cultivation in mass scale, to investigate the potential of Jatropha, including on marginal and semi-marginal lands with the consideration that such areas should not have been used for food agriculture in the last five year period, and educate farmers and industry with the benefits of growing and processing Jatropha.

Highlighting the objectives of the agreement the PARC chief said Pakistan was facing serious energy crisis, meeting its energy and transport requirements by importing fuel. Pakistan was spending about $3.1 billion on the import of petroleum products. “These imports account for almost 85 percent of Pakistan’s total consumption of fuel and almost one-third of Pakistan’s trade deficit,” he maintained. With the cultivation of Jatropha as bio-fuel the country would be able to save as much as $150 million in foreign exchange for every hectares of Jatropha cultivated in Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion Junaid Mirza of the KE Canada said his company would invest $150 million during the next five years for cultivation and production of Jatropha. The feasibility reports of Cholistan and Thar areas had been conducted and found ideal locations for cultivation of Jatropha. He said the areas identified were mostly not being used for food agriculture.

CDGK to grow Jatropha plants

By: Syed Intikhab Ali | Published: July 14, 2009

KARACHI - The Forest Department, in collaboration with Pakistan Army, has successfully cultivated Jatropha plants used to obtain biodiesel fuel in various developing countries, sources revealed to The Nation on Monday.
Jatropha is cultivated in Mexico and Brazil and its oil is used produce bio-diesel to combat the increasing prices of petroleum.
The forest department initiated the cultivation on experimental basis four months ago in Malir Cantt. The seeds of Jatropha plants were given by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to forest department of CDGK, sources said.
The importance of Jatropha plant increased during 2007-08 when high prices of petroleum were increased manifold and developing countries started its cultivation to maintain the pace of their economic progress. Its cultivation is successful in arid areas and Sindh province is an ideal place for this purpose. The idea of cultivating Jatropha in Karachi was conceived by the DO Forests, who had approached PSO to get seeds of the plant, sources said.
Four months ago, the seeds of Jatropha were sowed on the land of Malir Cantt, and now around 3,000 plants making fast growth.
Sources added that due to the success of Jatropha plants on experimental basis, its fame spread among the farmers community.
The agriculturalists are interested to start its cultivation in their areas and many among them have approached forest department to get seeds of the plant and other details.
At present, the forest department has more than 10,000 saplings of Jatropha at its nurseries, which would be provided to the farmers and planted in other parts of the province.
The sources said that credit of achievement goes to the forest department and Pakistan Army, who took a bold decision at the right time without spending any funds.
Corps Commander Karachi has also visited the cultivated land in Malir Cantt and appreciated successful cultivation of Jatropha plant on Pakistani soil.
Currently the oil from Jatropha curcas seeds is used as bio-diesel in Philippines and Brazil, where it grows naturally. Likewise, Jatropha oil is being promoted as an easily grown bio-fuel crop in hundreds of projects in India and other developing countries, sources said.
Jatropha oil is significantly cheaper than crude oil.

ECC approves policy recommendation for use of biodiesel as an alternative fuel

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Federal Cabinet has approved the Policy for use of Biodiesel as an Alternative Fuel in its meeting held on 15th February 2008. The Policy Recommendation was formulated by the Alternative Energy Development Board and marks achievement of another major milestone in the Alternative Renewable Energy Sector of Pakistan. Salient features of the approved Policy are as follows:

i) Ministry of Water & Power in coordination with AEDB shall be the apex coordinating and facilitating body for the national Bio-Diesel programme.
ii) Gradual introduction of bio-diesel fuel blends with petroleum diesel so as to achieve a minimum share of 5% by volume of the total Diesel consumption in the country by the year 2015 and 10% by 2025.
iii) Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to purchase Bio-Diesel (B-100) from Bio-Diesel manufacturers; and sell this Bio-Diesel blended with Petroleum Diesel (starting with B-5) at their Points of Sale.
iv) Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources shall come up with the fuel quality standards for B-100 and blends up to B-20.
v) OGRA shall regulate the pricing mechanism of various blends of Bio-Diesel (B-5, B-10 etc.) and ensure its cost-competitiveness with Petroleum Diesel.
vi) All imported plant, machinery, equipment and selective raw material, e.g. Jatropha, for use in production of Bio-Diesel shall be exempted from Customs Duty, Income Tax and Sales Tax.

Current Status of Biodiesel Project in Pakistan

Current Status of Biodiesel Project

Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB)’s project to electrify villages using Bio-Diesel on the basis of self generation is underway in Goth Umar Din Arain, in Tehsil Ghora Bari, Sindh. In this pilot project a Bio-Diesel production plant has been installed in the village for the purpose of village electrification.

The villagers are growing their own seeds for production of 70 liters of BioDiesel per batch that will be used for operating 15 KVA diesel generator. The energy produced form the generators will be used to electrify village.

Fig: Umar Din Arain Goth (Thatta) The project equipment has been designed and fabricated as shown in Fig.

Locally Fabricated Biodiesel Plant (Patented)

Alternate Energy Development Board of Pakistan

Resource Potential of Biodiesel Project

Alternative Energy Development Board carried out the initial research on bio-diesel resources in Pakistan through private sector. There are many resources used for biodiesel production in the world. These resources can be classified on the basis of availability and their yield. In Pakistan these resources mainly classified due to availability from oil crops, waste vegetable oils and animal fats. Historically animal fats were used in Pakistan, having been replaced by vegetable oil due to increase in population and per capita consumption. By studying all these aspects biodiesel resources can be classified into following two classes.

• CLASS-I: BIO-DIESEL FROM OIL SEEDS

• CLASS – II: BIO-DIESEL FROM WASTE OILS

CATEGORIES OF CLASS - I

Due to diverse ecological conditions of Pakistan, lucky to have over a dozen oil seed crops of which it can afford to grow one or the other in all season of the year. Depending upon the historical cultivation and production the oil seed crops were classified into conventional (i.e. traditional), non traditional, industrial and wild crops.

CATEGORY A – CONVENTIONAL CULTIVATED OIL YIELDING CROP

• Rape Seeds • Ground Nut • Sesame Seeds • Rocket seeds

CATEGORY B – NON CONVENTIONAL CULTIVATED OIL YIELDING CROPS

• Sun flower • Soybean • Safflower

CATEGORY C – Industries Based Crops

• Linseed • Castor beans • Cotton seeds

CATEGORY D – Wild Plant Resources

• Pongame tree • Olive tree • Hemp oil • Oat seeds • Milk Thistle • Carthamus seeds • Jatropha

TABLE-1 SHORT LISTING / SELECTION OF RESOURCES FROM CLASS - 1

S.No. Botanical Name English Name Local Name Family 1 Pongamioa Pinnata Pongame Sukhh Chain Fabaceae 2 Brassica campestris Mustard Sarson Brassicaceae 3 Brassica alba White Mustard Chiti Sarson Brassicaceae 4 Brassica nigra Black Mustard Kali Sarson Brassicaceae 5 Brassica napus Canola Canola Brassicaceae 6 Ricinus communis Castor Bean Arond Euphorbiaceae 7 Helianthus annuus Sunflower Suraj Mukhi Asteraceae 8 Gossypium hirsutum Cotton Kappa Malvaceae 9 Jatropha curcas Jatropha Karanga Euphorbiaceae

Fig 1: Castor bean and castor plant Fig 2: Pongamia Pinnata (Sukh Chane) Fig 3: Jatropha seeds and plant in Pakistan AVAILABILITY OF CLASS – II RESOURCES Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) can be recycled, cleaned and reused as bio diesel. WVO is available in large quantities from restaurants, hotel chains, confectionaries and domestic cooking. WVO is one of the cheaper sources for biodiesel in developed countries, where the cooking oil is used only once. Pakistan is basically an agricultural country and due to diverse ecological conditions, the population is heavily dependent on agricultural products. For cooking purposes edible oil yielding crops and plants are cultivated on a large scale in the country. These edible oils are utilized in hotels, huts, local shops and every home of Pakistan. So these are the major sources for collection of WVO. According to one survey, average consumption of edible oil in Pakistan is 10 liters per month by each family. This gives rise to an estimated quantity of 240 million litres of WVO available in Pakistan every year (assuming that 10% of edible oil in Pakistan becomes waste). Estimating an 80% yield of Bio-diesel from WVO (as supported by our experiments), a minimum approximate quantity of 150 million liters of Bio-diesel from WVO can be produced in Pakistan. From the marketing point of view there is a chain of dealers for collection and further selling of WVO. Price for 1 liter of WVO from these sources may vary from Rs. 20 – 45, depending upon the quality and quantity of WVO (some hotels etc. reuse edible oil several times before disposing off their WVO, while others use them once or twice). There are minor constraints in collection of WVO, including cost constraints. But these can be overcome by developing strategies for coordination between dealers, stakeholders and users of WVO. Fixing of raw material rates by the GOP might be required, as will be subsidies on the production and sale of Bio-diesel.

ECC exempts bio-diesel production items of duty

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on a Summary, tabled by the Ministry of Water and power regarding use of bio-diesel as an alternative fuel, has allowed exemption of whole of customs duty and sales tax on import of plant, machinery, equipment and specific items used in production of bio-diesel. The aforesaid decision of the ECC has been implemented and Federal Board of Revenue has issued SRO 474(1)/2008 dated the 21st May, 2008, allowing exemption to aforementioned goods used in production of bio-diesel.

Bio diesel plant to energise village

HYDERABAD, June 17: Government efforts to explore new vistas of alternative energy and overcome energy crisis has been further strengthened with a bio-diesel project launched by the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB).

A pilot project to electrify a village using bio diesel on the basis of self-generation is underway in Goth Umar Din Arain of Ghora Bari taluka, Thatta district.

According to the AEBD website, the Economic Coordination Committee of the Federal Cabinet has approved a policy to introduce the use of bio diesel as an alternative fuel.

According to policy recommendation formulated by the AEBD, the project is envisaged to be gradually developed into a national programme. It has been decided that bio diesel will be gradually blended with petrol to a point that it may achieve a minimum share of five per cent of the total diesel consumption in the country by 2015 and 10 per cent by 2025.

As per policy, oil marketing companies will be required to purchase bio diesel from bio diesel manufacturers and sell bio diesel blended with petroleum diesel at their sale points scattered across the country.

Bio diesel is a clean alternative fuel produced from renewable resources and it can be blended with petroleum diesel or could be used directly.

It can also be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Bio diesel is simple to use, biodegradable, non-toxic and essentially free of sulphur and aromatics.

There are many resources used for bio diesel production in the world and these resources can be classified on the basis of availability and their yield.

In the country oil crops, waste vegetable oils and animal fats are easily available to produce bio diesel. Historically animal fats were used in the country but they have been replaced by vegetable oil due to increase in population and per capita consumption.

The project of producing energy through bio diesel could help in catering the increasing need of electricity as the country is experiencing massive shortage in energy production.

The Alternate Energy Development Board has already launched projects of producing solar and windmill energy in Tharparkar and Thatta districts, respectively.—APP

Bio-diesel research begins in Pakistan

KARACHI, July 7: The Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has initiated research and development work on its bio-diesel project to meet government’s deadline of blending five per cent bio-diesel with conventional diesel by 2015 and 10 per cent by 2025.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had taken a decision on the issue in its meeting on Feb 15 in Islamabad.

Bio-diesel would be extensively tested in the auto industry of Pakistan, and depending upon its favorable results, scope of its supply would be extended throughout the country as a standard practice.

At PSO, after the production of bio-diesel from Jatropha oil, an in-house testing has already begun on one vehicle. However, results would be known later.

A PSO official involved in the project told Dawn that it would take some time to produce bio-diesel in Pakistan on such a large scale because it needs mass cultivation of Jatropha and other non-edible seeds for which commitment/concerted efforts of the government is required.

He said a separate department, alternative energy and new projects, has been established within the company to identify and take initiatives in terms of cheaper renewable and alternative energy projects and to address the country’s energy crisis and lessen the fuel import bill which would result in saving of precious foreign exchange.

PSO has selected only non-edible plants/seeds species, such as castor (Arind), Pongame (Sukh Chain), Jojoba, Jatropa (Karanga), etc., for production of bio-diesel. However, the company is currently focusing on Jatropha plant/seed for its better qualities as a substitute of petroleum diesel.

The officials added that many countries in Europe, US, Brazil, Malaysia, and India are using Jatropha as well as other edible and non-edible plants/seeds for production of bio-diesel.

The official said that out of these plants, Jatropha can be grown on marginal land, thus its plantation would not compete directly with other food crops, such as wheat, corn, sugarcane, rice and cotton besides helping in poverty alleviation and improving land utilisation.

Pakistan consumes approximately eight million tons of diesel per annum; of which around three million tons is imported.

There will definitely be incentives for consumers with regards to bio-diesel pricing, its effect on the environment and the vehicle performance, he said.

The official said that spiraling effect of fossil fuel prices world over continues to adversely affect economies of many countries.

This has provided incentives to search for alternative fuels derived from vegetable and non-vegetable oils, i.e. ‘bio diesel’, which offers several distinct advantages as an alternative fuel for diesel engines.

Economically it reduces imports and would afford improved security of energy supplies.

First biodiesel producer from China listed on NYSE

Environmental Energy Limited, the first biodiesel producer from China, listed on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday.

Gushan Environmental Energy is China's largest producer of biodiesel, as measured by annual production capacity. The company produces biodiesel, a renewable, clean-burning and biodegradable fuel, primarily from vegetable oil offal and used cooking oil, andby-products from biodiesel production, including glycerine, plant asphalt, erucic acid and erucic amide.

The company began trading on the NYSE Wednesday under the ticker symbol "GU" after its successful IPO in which it raised 172.8 million U.S. dollars.

The NYSE now has 51 companies listed from Greater China, including 39 from Mainland China, 7 from Hong Kong, and 5 from the Taiwan region.

The total global market capitalization of the 39 NYSE-listed Chinese companies from the mainland is 1.5 trillion dollars, and for the 51 companies from greater China, 2.0 trillion dollars.

FuelPod2 Brings the BioDiesel Processing Plant to Your Driveway

I like the idea of Biodiesel because it means cheap, clean-burning fuel. Or in the case of FuelPod2, free, clean-burning fuel. The FuelPod2 takes any used cooking oil you may have, and converts it into usable Biodiesel, which runs in any standard diesel engine. The FuelPod can convert up to 50 litres (just over 13 gallons) at a time, nearly enough for a full tank in an average car. However, unless you own a restaurant on the side specializing in fried food, finding enough oil for this thing might be a challenge. The FuelPod2 is selling in the UK for 2,056 pounds.