The Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) today suggested that bio fuel production be made a commercially viable option to reduce dependence on petroleum products.

For the last five months, NAST has been generating power by blending bio-fuel (20 percent) and diesel (80 percent) during power cuts. It uses leftover cooking oil from restaurants and Jatropha seed oil for making fuel.

The blended oil is first treated with dolomite before use in generating power. Dolomite, used as a catalyst, is available in abundance in the country. According to NAST senior scientist Rabindra Dhakal, blended diesel can be used in engines to generate electricity.The lab can produce up to ten litre of bio-fuel per day, he said.

NAST had recently floated a Rs 5 million project for producing 100-litre bio-fuel per day to the Office of the Prime Minister and National Planning Commission.

It is learnt that the government is planning to spend Rs 5.4 billion in buying diesel to minimise long power cuts for the coming dry season.

Dhakal said that they are trying to find measures to lower bio fuel price to decrease dependence on diesel.

The price of bio-fuel was set at Rs 300 per litre by Everest bio-fuel some years ago, said Dhakal and underlined the need to convince the private sector to distribute the technology.

A retired Japanese professor with a PhD in bio fuel, also a volunteer at JICA, Hiroyuki Kojima is currently assisting Dhakal at NAST.

“We can produce the needed fuel in the country as well as export it in the next ten years,” claimed Dhakal.

The lab-testing of Jatropha was initiated some 25 years ago. According to Kojima, Nepal has 1.9 mega hectares of wasteland that could be used to cultivate Jatropha producing 2.9 Megaton oil per year.

A cooperative in Dhangadhi has started Jatropha farming in about 100 hectares land.

Kojima and Dhakal are making a presentation on the successful experimentation of bio-fuel tomorrow at the sixth national science and technology conference that started here in capital today.

Around 1,000 people including 10 international delegates are participating in the event, which is organised in every four years. The conference aims to share new technology and innovation in the field of science and technology, vice chancellor of NAST Surendra Raj Kafle said. He underlined the need to allocate minimum one per cent budget for science and technology.

NAST Chancellor and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai appealed to Nepali scientists abroad to return home while inaugurating the conference.

source: The Himalayan Times, 25 Sept 2012