IIT-Delhi develops bio-diesel car engine

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, has developed a passenger car engine, which will run on bio-diesel fuel.

Displaying the bio-diesel-fed engine fitted in an Indica car at Assocham House here today, MK Gajendra Babu, head of the department, Centre for Energy Studies, IIT Delhi, said the institute was planning to have an arrangement with Tata Motors so that by the time bio-diesel fuel was made available for mass consumption, the bio-diesel-run passenger cars were also introduced in the market.

He said the institute had developed a bio-diesel engine with significant modifications in the existing Indica diesel engine, which would be introduced in the market in next few years.

Refusing to divulge details of the bio-diesel engine, Babu said: "At present on an experimental basis, 10 per cent of the bio-diesel fuel is mixed with diesel to run the passenger car. The demand for such cars will rise because bio-diesel will be the future fuel, replacing diesel."

However, it would take few years for any automobile manufacturer to come out with bio-diesel engine fitted cars, Babu hinted.

Addressing a seminar "Commercialisation of Energy Efficient Technologies", organised by Assocham, BSK Naidu, director-general of the National Power Training Institute, stressed the need for efficient energy conservation, saying one mw saved would lead to a saving of Rs 2,000 crore a year.

"If one unit of electricity is saved, it reduces 270 gm of carbon in the environment and significantly curtails the possibilities of quicker climatic changes," Naidu said.

Speaking on the occasion, said Leena Mehendale, executive director of the Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), her institute, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehra dun, had developed energy-efficient burners and pump sets for agricultural use.

These burners and pump sets were being manufactured in Faridabad and would replace over 7 million obsolete pump sets in which the energy efficiency was less than 30 per cent, she said.

Anil K Agarwal, Assocham's future president, said efficient use of energy would save about Rs 60,000 crore in a short period of time. Equipment and appliances relating to power should be made keeping in view the efficiency of energy, he added.