US firm to set up bio-diesel plant in R'sthan

US-based technology company Thar Technologies Inc is planning to set up a bio-diesel plant in Rajasthan.

Thar President and Chief Executive Officer Lalit Chorida, who hails from Rajasthan, said that the company was looking out for 20 acre land in Jaipur and surrounding areas for the proposed plant.

"The main source of bio-diesel -- jatropha and karanj -- are extensively grown in Rajasthan. We want to draw benefits from the recent bio-diesel policy of the Rajasthan government that entails allotment of 30 per cent cultivable wasteland to the private sector for jatropha and karanj," Chordia said.

He said that "apart from doing bio-diesel plantation ourselves, we would be sourcing plants from other private players for processing".

The company has recently received a $1.9 million US federal Advanced Technology Programme (ATP) grant for development of a bio-diesel production process in southwestern Pennsylvania that promises to be cheaper, more efficient and more flexible than processes used currently.

"To date, bio-diesel production has been a two-stage process -- first, hexane is used to extract vegetable oil from oilseed, then the vegetable oil is converted to bio-diesel. In the proposed single-stage process, carbon dioxide replaces hexane, a toxic solvent," he said.

Chordia said that besides being non-polluting, the new process would use 25 per cent less energy to produce the same amount of fuel, and would be 14 per cent less expensive, a combination of higher efficiency and lower cost.