Indian Railways to test biodiesel

The Indian Railways and the Indian Oils Corp have signed a memorandum of understanding for production and use of biodiesel.

The Railways will offer 500 ha of compact land on lease to Indian Oil for planting of a hard variety of nonedible wheat which seeds are expected to yield 500-800 mt of biodiesel in 2-3 years’ time. The oil from the plant will be blended up to 5% initially with diesel and later go to 20%.

The Railways has already tested biodiesel supplied by the government and successfully conducted a trial run on the diesel locomotive in december 2002. The government of India is working on a national policy on biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol.

(Vgl. Meldung vom 2003-05-13.)