India anticipates reaping rewards from its aggressive jatropha program

摘要

India has taken sharp steps to promote the production and use of biodiesel by removing import duties, ending the excise tax on B100, and even giving benefits to blended fuels. In addition, the country has an aggressive jatropha cultivation program, said Sandeep Chaturvedi, president of the Biodiesel Association of India, which is helping to create jobs for the world's second largest population, 25 percent of which lives below the poverty line. "It will be a few more years until we see results from jatropha, so we are keeping going with used cooking and industrial oils," he said. "India has a capacity for biodiesel production that is nearly 3,000 tons (just under a million gallons) per day, but we are only operating at about 10 percent of that volume."