In what is being hailed as a major step towards going green in the developing world, Bharat Renewable Energy, a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Nandan Biomatrix, announced they will build 10 new biodiesel refineries in India.

Jatropha Field in Uttar Pradesh

Considering that green initiatives are few and far in-between in this part of the world, the announcement has already assumed great significance. The $428 million project will initially be concentrated around the Kanpur, Jhansi, Laltpur, Chitrakoot, and Sultanpur districts of Uttar Pradesh.

According to the sources in the country, the nation wants biofuel to account for 20% of its total gasoline fuel production. While that is still a long way to go, the company will use jatropha as the main source of raw material and promises that the newly added plants will contribute 270 million gallons of biofuel by 2015. And what’s even better, the production will not affect the food crops, as the plant is a common weed easily found in the region.

We can only hope that nations like India and China are really taking steps in the green direction, as both nations contribute plenty in terms of global carbon emissions each year.

[via TreeHugger]

If you're new here and you like our articles, how about subscribing free for our updates via RSS feed.

Jatropha is a weed that grows in plenty in nations like India, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania and is often a serious threat to food crops as it grows at a rapid pace and uses up all nutrients in soil. But Air New Zealand along with Boeing and Rolls Royce’s testing unit are turning this unwanted pest into biofuel for flights of tomorrow.

Boeing committed to going the biofuel way for jets because it sees a very urgent need to change from fossil fuel dependency that has been affecting the planet and the aviation industry in a seriously negative way.

Air New Zealand is helping them in this regard as both of them are coming together for a test flight on December 3 that will be powered by a 50/50 blend of Jet A-1 fuel and a synthetic paraffinic kerosene derived from Jatropha that was developed by UOP (!! pdf link)

Rolls Royce has successfully tested this mix and has found it good enough for a Boeing flight. Now it will be just a matter of time, some fine tweaking and maybe a little luck before we have jets that are completely powered by biofuel derived from algae and weed. – via Ecogeek

Image courtesy of Thomas@Bod