Rubber seed bio-diesel plant to come up at Pollachi

Kerala based K T K Bio Energy Plc proposes to set up a bio diesel plant that will make use of non-edible oil seeds other than jatropha as raw material. The plant will be set up near Pollachi in association with the Tiruchirapalli based Fabrichem Process Equipment.

The proposed plant, with an installed capacity of 3,000 litres per day, is estimated to cost around Rs 95 lakh and would be commissioned by mid January, according to M I Samy, director, Fabrichem Process Equipment Plc.

The entire project cost would be borne by Kerala-based entrepreneurs K K Francis and K K Paul and the technical support would be lended by Fabrichem.

Speaking to Business Standard, Samy said that this is the first time that a company is involved in extracting bio diesel from non-edible oil seeds such as neem, mahuaa, rubber seeds, silk cotton seeds and even from waste cashew kernels.

Elaborating on this, Samy said, "We started the research in this regard two years ago and we have been successful in implementing our efforts. We also have two pilot project plants- one in Tiruchirapalli and other at Sivakasi, each with a capacity of 50 litres per day. At the Pollachi plant, we plan to use rubber seeds and waste cashew kernels."

Fabrichem's method has been recognised by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. "We have made a plea to the union Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to consider our new method and provide subsidies for us," Samy said.

Commenting on the pricing, Samy said that the bio diesel would cost around Rs 20 per litre provided at a seed cost of Rs 6 a kg.