New Indian Railways plants to produce 30 tons of biofuel per day

Indian Railways plans to build four plants to produce biodiesel, capable of producing 30 tons of fuel per day, according to a government statement.

The first two will be completed by 2013 at a cost of INR600 million (USD11 million), according to a statement, which cited a written reply from Railway Minister KH Muniyappa to parliament, Bloomberg reported.

These first two will be built Tondiarpet in Tamil Nadu state and Raipur in Chhattisgarh state, while the locations of the other two are being finalized, Muniyappa said.

Produced from waste oil, fatty acid and non-edible vegetable oil, Indian Railway’s bio-diesel will be blended with the High-Speed Deseil oil for running locomotives.

The use of bio-diesel will reduce the consumption of petro-diesel to some extent at present, a railway official told the Economic Times, adding the eco-friendly measure will also earn Indian Railways carbon credits worth INR2 million (USD36,000) per plant, per year.

Indian Railways, which currently consumes 2.2 billion litres of diesel per year, is keeping a close track on global developments in the use of alternate fuels, gas turbine engines, fuel cell technology for adoption of gas turbine locomotive on fossil fuels, and trials are in progress for running locomotives on dual fuel mode using compress natural gas, the official said.

According to the government statement, the state carrier also plans to install solar photovoltaic panels and wind turbines in the next three years, without providing further details.