Green Mahindra Scorpio: India's First Car Run On 100% Bio-Diesel.

An Article from HT:
Saw it on the Facebook scorpio fan page, so thought would share this one. Please share your thoughts.


Megha Rathee's mint-green Scorpio sits like any other car in a corporate parking lot in Gurgaon, Delhi's suburb of global companies. There's no indication that it is a remarkable vehicle -- India's first commercial car to run on 100 per cent biodiesel. Plenty of cars run on a diesel-biofuel blend. In October 2007, under pressure from the world to cut emissions of the greenhouses gases produced by fossil fuel combustion, the Indian government mandated that all diesel contain 5 per cent biofuel by volume. Biofuels are fuels produced from crops. They burn cleaner than fossil fuels -- releasing up to 90 per cent less carbon dioxide, the gas responsible for global climate change.
Biodiesels, a subset of biofuels, are fuels produced from vegetable or animal oils.
Now, the government is targeting a 20 per cent biofuel blend by 2017. Last week, under pressure from world leaders, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh promised that India will set targets for reducing its carbon emissions and report annually on its progress to the United Nations.
The Rathees first came up with the idea in 2007. "Since nobody else had tried to do this, we had to build the entire business," said Akshat.
They approached a few companies, who indicated that they'd be willing to run biodiesel-powered cars as part of their company fleet if the Rathees could provide the cars.
In countries such as Brazil, engines regularly run on oil that is up to 70 per cent biofuel. A regular diesel engine can be outfitted to burn biofuel with a few minor and inexpensive alterations.
For the same price as a regular Scorpio, Mahindra and Mahindra, an automobile firm, agreed to supply the Rathees with Scorpios that could run on both diesel and biodiesel.
The trouble was sourcing the oil.


"We approached five different companies, multimillion dollar companies,"
said Akshat. "But none of them could supply us with jatropha oil."
The Rathees finally met up with the Chhattisgarh Biofuel Development Authority (CBDA), a small facility in Raipur, central India. The Authority at the time supplied limited quantities of jatropha oil for scientific research.
Jatropha grows wild in Chhattisgarh, and for several years the CBDA had been employing rural farmers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, paying them anywhere from Rs 8 to Rs 20 for every kg of jatropha plant they picked.
In order to supply the Rathees' project, the CBDA upgraded its refining and laboratory testing facilities until it could provide a type of oil that met rigorous international biodiesel standards.
  The additional cost of operating a jatropha-powered car instead of a diesel car is about two rupees per kilometre, said Megha.
"Everybody seems to like the idea,"
said Megha. "People keep asking us if they can get these cars for their personal use."



Source: Hindustan Times epaper

Thanks for the info!

Mahindra seems to be quite proactive in terms of the environment, kudos to them for they are an 'all Indian' effort.

Nice to see Indians trying to be at the forefront of innovations and ideas that are worth risk taking...

Cheers to their efforts...and to you as well sandeep for bringing this topic...

would be interesting to find out how do they get the fuel on regular basis from CBDA. And how much that adds up to transportation cost. From the article it seems anyone can easily convert their vehicle - getting fuel on regular basis is the key (details of which is never mentioned; typical journalism these days - tells you everything except things that you can really use)

This ki8nd of technology is needed for the cause of reducing the pollution around in the atmosphere and i feel this one is a great initiative.....

I fail to see the point - There is no infrastructure for bio-diesel, and if the "additional"cost of running on bio-diesel is Rs. 2/km, the whole exercise is non-remunerative, and there is no incentive for buying into biodiesel. So why bother?

Any new technology has to prove itself in terms of being cost effective, particularly when there is a well established business economics for the mainstream competition. Biodiesel, at least in India, does not make the cut. Yet.