Biodiesel tango
british petroleum is set to make a whopping investment of us $9.4 million in a project in Andhra Pradesh that aims to produce biodisel on a mass scale. The production will be a joint undertaking with The Energy and Resources Institute (teri), New Delhi.
The project is expected to utilise around 8,000 hectares, categorised as wasteland, for jatropha plantations and instal all equipment required to crush seeds and extract oil to produce nine million litres of biodiesel a year. This will take 10 years.
Considering that there is limited availability of land to produce food crops, it will be interesting to see on what land the project will be implemented. However, both partners in the project assert that a comprehensive environmental and social impact assessment analyses will be conducted, and a life cycle study of greenhouse gas undertaken, before the project gets a go-ahead.