QAU scientists prepare environment-friendly bio-diesel
Islamabad:The Department of Plant Sciences of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has successfully prepared environment friendly bio-diesel that can be used to operate motor vehicles without producing hazardous amount of carbon dioxide, considered highly harmful to the natural environment.
The project was initiated in 2004 and after making hard work for many long years the scientists of the university has finally succeeded in preparing bio-diesel and road test carried out recently to run a tractor was really a success that opened up many new avenues in the field of environment-friendly energy production. The aim of the project was to continue scientific and technological collaboration between university and industry to identify biological resources for bio-diesel production to ensure pollution free sustainable development.
The principal investigator Prof. Dr. Mir Ajab Khan, Dean Faculty of Biological Sciences of QAU, and Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad and team members are quite satisfied with results of their research and are quite hopeful that a time would come when they would be able to produce bio-diesel in such a amount that all university vehicles could be run on it.
Talking to ‘The News’ Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad said this alternative fuel is environment friendly, engine specific and would be more economical and could be used in vehicles, power tractors and other agricultural machinery.
He said they had set up first bio-diesel lab in the country and first road test was conducted at Sihala where a railway engine was successfully run with the help of bio-diesel. Dr. Mushtaq said after conducting chemical test of the engine it was came to know that bio-diesel has no negative effect on ‘health’ of the engine and it was quite parallel to diesel.
He said they have so far identified 25 non-edible plants such as ‘Such chain’ and ‘hernoli’ that can be used for production of bio-diesel. “Bio-diesel is an environment friendly fuel, with far less emissions than mineral diesel fuel, and is the perfect solution for the food and fuel crisis,” he said He said it can be obtained by chemically converting non-edible oil from plants that can thrive on marginal land and can be cultivated with saline and waste water.
Pakistan has the potential to cultivate non-edible oil yielding plants, as more than 60 per cent of Pakistan’s land lies barren.
The bio-diesel can be used for buses, wagons and railway engines, helping in reducing harmful emissions, and can also be utilised for power generation.
It is pertinent to mention here that scientists of NED University Pakistan also stated in the recent past that country’s import bill can be reduced by Rs69.5 billion if only bio-diesel produced from
non-edible raw material is
used in the transportation sector.
Dr. Mushtaq said the university has started a degree programme in biotechnology for MPhil students and many more students are expected to conduct more research in this field.
He suggested that the government should provide buy back guarantees to bio-diesel producers at a price determined by OGRA and make it mandatory to use this source of energy for public sector vehicles running on diesel, adding all imported plant, machinery, equipment and specific items used in the production of bio-diesel should be exempted from customs duty, income tax and sales tax.
The news
