Soon, Indian car will run on Recycled cooking oilby | 04-04-2013 02:30 |
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Recently there was a good news appeared in Indian newspapers that, the Indian Govt. has taken a clue from US & Europe, where 75% of used cooking oil is recycled to produce bio-diesel, and decided to have a similar frame-work for Indian eateries. As the first step in this direction, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has asked the National Food Safety & Standard Authority (NFSSA) to prescribe standards and regulations for use of cooking oils. India does not have any standard prescribing until when the cooking oil can be reused. It, thereby, prevents Govt. agencies from taking penal action against eateries reusing bad quality cooking oil, which can be harmful for one?s health. The Ministry has asked Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Renewable Energy, to develop a system for converting used cooking oil into bio-diesel and then test it on vehicles on experimental basis. The data collected would be employed for developing a long-term national policy. Our National Biofuels Policy has envisaged a target of 20% blending of petrol & diesel with ethanol and biodiesel by 2017 from the present 5% level. Around 5 mn kilo litres of vegetable oil will be required to produce adequate biodiesel. That would be difficult unless the Govt. decides to divert some of the edible oil seeds for biodiesel. It will not be feasible considering its political implications. As an alternative, the Govt. sees an opportunity is used cooking oil and wants to kick-start pilots in this regard. Once the authority comes out with the standards, the Govt. will start pilots in select cities to collect used cooking oil from large hotels and food industry for production of bio-diesel. If the pilots work, the Govt. believes more than a million kilo-Ls of bio-diesel can be produced from used cooking oils. |
