Welcome, Saturday , Apr , 26 , 2025 | 11:17 IST
Water Filtration Technologies from CSIR-CMERI (Click banner to read more) 
Municipal Solid Waste Segregation Pilot Plat (Click banner to read more) 
Know of Any Unsung Heroes of the Freedom Movement (Click on the Banner) 
Mob Control Vehicles Aleurites fordii tree is spread widely in western China, Argentina, Paraguay, Africa, India and United States. In India, it is also commonly referred to as Tung tree. The tree usually bears fruit within 2–4 years and reaches maximum productivity at around 10–12 years of age. The productivity of Tung oil mainly varies from 300 to 450 kg/ha. The oil content of fruit is between 14–20%, in the kernel 53–60% and the in seed 30–40%. Tung oil has been used in different industrial applications such as ceramic, paint, paper and cloth production. However, recently Tung oil (Aleutites fordii) has been regarded as a promising non-edible source of biodiesel production.
A semi-continuous type biodiesel plant has been designed, developed and tested at CMERI, Ludhiana. The plant having capacity of 600 litres / day is able to produce biodiesel from any edible and non-edible vegetable oil irrespective of its FFA content. This plant was utilized for making biodiesel based on optimized parameters to produce biodiesel from Tung seed oil.
In north east, mostly fire woods are used for cooking purpose which is very costly as well as causes tremendous environmental pollution. So, biogas can be a cheap, environmental friendly solution to cooking and power generation. Moreover, after anaerobic digestion, the spent slurry becomes excellent organic manure which is highly rich in N P K content. This manure can be used in cultivation after drying. Glycerol produced during the process of Esterification as by product, has market potential in soap and cosmetics industries. Moreover, the hull and husk of the seeds can be removed by dehuller and decorticator which can be fed into gasifier to produce producer gas. Hence, every component of the chain contribute to energy generation, thus, making the people of north east India self-sufficient in energy. The present research however was focused only on production of Biodiesel from Tung seed.
In north eastern part of India sufficient quantity of non-edible oil seeds like tung is available having oil content ranging from 30 to 40 %. The seeds can be extracted in oil expeller. The extracted oil can be used to make biodiesel through transesterification.The biodiesel produced (calorific value of 9500 – 10500 k Cal/ kg) can be used to run engines, diesel gensets locally.Thus, the whole unit can be self-reliant in its energy requirement and supply. The left over cake can be fed into biogas plant. The biogas produced (calorific value of 5700 kCal/ kg) can be used for cooking purpose or lighting purpose (directly or through generating electricity).
