Bio-diesel to fuel IIT-Bombay’s power aspirations

In a few months from now, IIT Bombay’s vehicles like buses, cars and ambulances could well be run by using fuel produced from the first campus bio-diesel plant in India — installed by students of the institute’s chemical engineering department.

Started in March 2008, the project called ‘Biosynth’ is the first-ever student initiative of setting up a self-sustained bio-diesel producing plant at an institute level. It uses waste vegetable oil as its primary raw material.

“It’s an ambitious project. While we are currently at the design and production stages, the plant is likely to be ready for commissioning by May-June 2009,” said professor Sanjay Mahajani, faculty coordinator for the project.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day festival ‘Azeotropy’, which was organised by IIT-B’s chemical engineering association.

Subsequently, the plant will start producing bio-diesel to serve campus fuel and power requirements. “Initially, it will be used to run campus vehicles which will be subject to approval by the institute,” said Mahajani.

With a team of 38 undergraduate and postgraduate students from chemical engineering department, the objective of building such a plant was to enhance the teaching process and give hands-on experience to students. “The idea was to enable students to get a feel of the size and scale of chemical plants,” he said.

The long-term vision is to develop an efficient technology that can reduce India’s dependence on fossil fuels.