Viable biofuels could end up reducing land for crops

Congress general secretary, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday night, stressed the significance of alternative energy sources for comprehensive prosperity even in interior regions. He was addressing a congregation of Self-Help Group (SHG) members at a village in Unchahar of Rae Barei dstrict.

KALPANA PATHAK Mumbai, 17 December

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) want a price cut of as much as Rs 8 in the procurement price of biodiesel from the producers, who, however, do not agree to this idea.

Civic Body

The Cabinet has once again decided that the Petroleum Ministry must ensure mandatory blending of 5 per cent ethanol with petrol. Deadline after deadline has passed since 2006 and the ambitious programme is yet to take off. A complex set of factors involving the sugar industry and the ethanol market is at play.

S V Krishnamachari
S V Krish Chennai,

IT may come as a surprise to many that a train in Sweden is powered by biogas. Yes, it is the world's first biogas train, a 60-seater carrier that runs from Linkoping, south of Stockholm, to Vastervik, at a speed of 130 km per hour for approximately 600 km.

Ajay Modi / New Delhi November 23, 2009, 0:57 IST

But, sugar firms want Rs 28 a litre.

Following the recent decision of the Union Cabinet to continue with the mandatory 5 per cent ethanol blending with petrol, oil marketing companies (OMCs) have agreed to increase the price of ethanol from Rs 21.50 to Rs 26 a litre for a year.

JAIPUR: Experts attending a zonal consultation on bio-fuel for semi-arid eastern plains of Rajasthan here over the week-end called for evolving a balance between the commercial production of bio-fuel bearing plants such as jatropha and the use of common land, crucial for the rural poor, for their cultivation.