Bhavnagar-based entrepreneur kicks off bio-diesel sales commercially

Bhavnagar-based entrepreneur and chemical engineer Nirav Doshi, has started selling bio-diesel commercially into the market under the brand name of 'Feezol' arguably India's first ever commercial businessman to venture into selling bio-diesel fuel.

"Currently, our company Feezol Industries is producing 2,000 litres per day of bio-diesel manufactured from Jethropa, Karanj and other edible oils. We started our business operations in mid January 2006," said Nirav.

Till now we have produced 21,000 litres of bio-diesel and sell it to the small time players like private transporter and other end users in the open market, he said.

Talking about selling bio-diesel without license Nirav said, "Any oil which has a flash point below 100 degree C requires license for sale and explosive certificate, but our product has a flash-point of 130 degree celsius." Again the product being made from non-edible oil does not require such license, he added.

To understand the new business intricacies of Bio-Diesel fuel, Nirav took extensive training at the Centre of Entreprenuership Development (CED) Bhavnagar.

"Gujarat Growwell, a company involved in cultivation of Jethropha and also our raw-material supplier, showed interest in selling bio-diesel manufactured by us," Nirav said.

We have been able to to make our presence in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Himmatnagar, Siddhpur and Kalol, he added.

Currently, 50 per cent of our produce is being sold through our distribution network and rest of the 50 per cent is sold by us solely, he said. Business enquiries have been coming from other parts of the country, he added.

"Having come from a business background, I never ever thought of a job instead I was planning to do something new," Nirav said.

Bio-Diesel produced by Feezol Industries is sold at Rs 35 per litre. "Generally its used in ratio of 1: 20 per cent with regular diesel," he explained.

The average of vehicles have improved by five to 30 per cent and emission of pollutant like carbon, sulphur, hydro carbon has also reduced significantly by 50 to 70 per cent on utilising bio-diesel fuel, he added.

Ideally B20 ratio, that is 20 per cent bio-diesel mixed with 80 per cent of regular diesel, is the best combination without modifying the vehicle engine, he said.

Nirav is targeting to cater the larger corporate and business clients across the world.

"Bio-Diesel being eco-friendly and renewable fuel option, even the government has chalked out a policy advocating 2 per cent bare minimum blending with regular diesel, which is estimated around 26,000 crore litres of bio-diesel requirement by 2005. But unfortunately production against the requirement is zero per cent at present," he explained.

On expansion plans, he said, "We have invested around Rs 40 lakh and are producing 2,000 liters of bio-diesel per day. We are targeting production of 30,000 liters of bio-diesel in near future to meet the demand," .

We are envisaging 10 to 20 per cent profits on business turnover by the end of this year, he added.