The frequent escalation in the prices of petroleum products have burnt a hole in one’s pocket. Social and political turmoil in oil-producing countries have triggered the fear of a fuel crisis in the near future.

At this juncture, developing countries like India, who are endowed with abundant renewable energy resources, have a need to utilise it in every possible way. Keeping this in mind, some  students of Acharya Polytechnic have come out with an alternative energy option in the form of biodiesel.

With this innovation, these students are contributing their bit in providing energy security to the country. A team comprising Rathish A P, Rahul Roy, Rajnish Kumar, Ravi Sharma, Sidharth Srivastav and M Imtiaz from the Automobile Engineering Department took this initiative and successfully tested the fuel on a four-stroke diesel engine.

But it was not an easy job. “We know the mechanism of machines and vehicles. But, we didn’t have any knowledge about producing biofuel. So, in the beginning, the task seemed impossible. Finally, we decided to take the help of Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) of the University of Agricultural Sciences. They accepted our request and agreed to teach us the procedure of producing fuel from ‘honge’ (pongamia) seeds. We spent many days in their lab learning the procedure and we could able to produce the fuel on our own,” says Siddarth, a member of the team.

There is an interesting story behind these students taking up the project. “Normally, diesel bikes cause vibration after you reach certain speed. We wanted to reduce the vibration. While ascertaining the causes and solutions, we came to know that mixing biofuel with diesel will reduce vibration. And, after our test, we found that the diesel engine on which we carried out the test causes less vibration and less emission,” says Rajnish Kumar.

“The most important thing about bio-diesel is that it is natural, renewable and dissolves in water faster than sugar,” says Rathish. “Biodiesel contains no sulphur. It increases lubrication by 30 per cent. Moreover, the resources used are indigenous, non-polluting and virtually inexhaustible,” he adds.

The biodiesel they have produced is blended with diesel at 80 per cent diesel and 20 per cent biodiesel proportion. “The college is proud about this project. The students have used the Ape engine for the test. And the result is really awesome,” explains Chennegowda, HOD of Automobile Engineering, Acharya Polytechnic.