MEETING REPORTS
A viable substitute for diesel in rural India*
The discussion meeting held to assess
the potential of honge oil to replace
diesel in rural areas, was attended by
over a hundred and twenty participants
which included users of honge, NGOs,
scientists, technologists, bankers, tech-
nical groups, traders and oil-mill own-
ers.
Honge oil is extracted from the seeds
of the honge tree (whose Latin name is
Pongamia pinnata; Figure 1). This tree
is found all over India. In many places
the leaves are used as green manure and
the seed cake is used as fertilizer.
Honge oil has fungicidal properties and
is also traded as a non-edible vegetable
oil.
Udipi Shrinivasa (Chief Programme
Executive, SuTRA) discussed the evolu-
tion of the use of vegetable oils in die-
sel engines during the last hundred
years. The inventor of the diesel engine,
Rudolph Diesel, had used peanut oil in
his engines. A lot of work was subse-
quently done on vegetable oils before
and during the Second World War in a
world driven by political uncertainties
and shortage of fossil fuels. In India, at
least eleven vegetable oils were tried as
diesel substitutes in Calcutta in the
1930s. The use of vegetable oils in die-
sel engines did not become popular
because they were more expensive than
fossil fuels at that time.
Shrinivasa also explained briefly the
details of work carried out by SuTRA
with regard to the use of honge oil as a
replacement for diesel in diesel engines
and also the prospect of producing lar-
ger quantities of honge oil in rural areas
(Figure 2). He pointed out that there are
300 species of trees in this country,
which produce seeds containing oil and
*A report of the discussion meeting on ‘The
Potential of honge oil as diesel substitute in
rural areas’, held on 9 February 2001 at
Choksi Hall, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore. The meeting was organized by
AGRITECH (a registered society engaged in
promoting agricultural and technological
services) and SuTRA (Sustainable Trans-
formation of Rural Areas, a programme unit
of the Society for Innovation and Develop-
ment in the Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore).
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 80, NO. 12, 25 JUNE 2001
there is a strong possibility of some a
types being as attractive as honge. Most
of the physical and chemical properties
of honge oil were similar to those of
diesel, though the ‘Conradson carbon
residue’ is higher in the case of honge.
This may call for frequent maintenance
of the fuel injector. Considering that
diesel fuel is often adulterated with
other fuels and oils such as kerosene,
the use of honge oil may not cause
problems that are worse than those be-
ing experienced already.
Honge oil has to be preheated since
the viscosity of the oil is much larger
than that of diesel at room temperature.
The power output of the diesel engine
remains almost the same, though the
calorific value of honge is slightly
lower. Shrinivasa argued that honge oil
will be less expensive than diesel in
rural areas if the value of the cake,
which is a good fertilizer, is taken into b
account (see Table 1). One hectare of
honge plantation could yield 10 tonnes
of seeds which can yield a gross reve-
nue of Rs 40,000 (which is good reve-
nue for dry land), provided high-
yielding plants are selected. Shrinivasa
suggested planting seedlings a hundred
times more densely than is normally
required (which is about a hundred trees Figure 1 a and b. Honge tree.
per hectare). Though the yield per plant
may be less in the earlier years, this is
compensated for by the higher density.
However, as the plants grow, weaker
ones have to be selectively culled. He
concluded his talk by highlighting the
fact that biofuels protect the environ-
ment and pointed out that the experi-
ments conducted at SuTRA have proved
that honge oil can be used without any
harm to the engine and, more impor-
tantly, the use of honge oil is also eco-
nomical in rural areas. Figure 2. A 15 kVA generator operating
P. V. Jose (Dandeli Ferroalloys) out- on honge oil in Kunigal.
lined his experience with the use of
honge oil in larger engines coupled to
1 MW diesel generation sets in his fac-
suppliers of diesel engines had some
tory in Dandeli. The initial problems
encountered in using honge oil such as reservations about the use of honge oil
choking of filters and high viscosity earlier, but are now convinced that
were overcome through discussions honge oil can be used without any ad-
with engineers at SuTRA. He indicated verse impact on the engines. The diesel
that his company was able to save sev- generator sets in Dandeli have worked
eral lakhs of rupees each month by sub- for more than 800 h so far without any
stituting diesel with honge oil. The major problems.
1483
MEETING REPORTS

Table 1. Honge oil economics Rs 15,000 crores, most of which could

come as voluntary contribution in kind
Honge seeds have about 30 to 35% oil; up to about 27 to 28% oil can be expressed from the farm sector to improve its own
in crushers (say 25% for convenience of calculations) income.
Apart from honge, oils from other
Sample cost calculations
trees like neem and mahua have also
Cost of 4 kg of honge seeds (at average seasonal price) Rs 20.00 been evaluated and are found to be
Expelling charges (in large quantities) Rs 4.00 potential diesel substitutes. These trees
Less return from selling 3 kg of cake – Rs 12.00 are hardy and already exist in very large
Net cost of 1 kg of honge oil Rs 12.00 numbers.
Price of diesel in Kunigal (per litre) Rs 19.30 To conclude, tree-based oilseeds hold
Net cash outflow per kg of oil to the farmer if he uses seeds from Rs 4.00 great promise to the rural sector to meet
his trees its energy and fertilizer requirements in
adequate measure. The potential for
consequent increase in primary produc-
tion from land itself could reshape In-
The officials from the Karnataka For- honge tree is its ability to withstand dian economy to see better days. The
est Department indicated that they have salinity. path advocated being environmentally
identified several high-yielding varie- Available numbers on yield (2500 kg benign makes it even more interesting
ties of honge and are presently produc- of oil per hectare per year) and effi- from a global point of view.
ing lakhs of seedlings every year. Other ciency (4 kh per kg of oil in 1 MW gen-
experts in forestry argued that it is pos- erators) indicate that 10 million hectares Udipi Shrinivasa, Department of
sible to accelerate propagation of better of plantation could lead to a generation Mechanical Engineering and Sustain-
varieties through cuttings or by graft- of 100 billion kWh of electricity or able Transformation of Rural Areas,
ing, gootying (air layering) and making replace 25 million tonnes of diesel Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
use of greenhouses and mist chambers. fuel. Cost of plantation at Rs 15,000 560 012, India.
One of the special features of the per hectare would amount to e-mail: udipi@sutra.iisc.ernet.in

SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE

On a long-lost endemic liverwort (Hepaticae) from India

While working on the diversity and
distribution of liverworts (Hepaticae) in
India, it has come to our notice that
several of the taxa instituted and de-
scribed earlier from the Indian subcon-
tinent appear to have never been
collected again since their original dis-
covery and therefore, need due atten-
tion. Isotachis indica Mitt. – an
endemic and threatened liverwort from
India reportedly confined to a small
pocket of Khasi hills, belongs to the
same category. This species was insti-
tuted by Mitten1 on the basis of collec-
tion made by J. D. Hooker from Khasi
hills with a short diagnosis of the plant.
Stephani2 and Hatcher3 also described I.
indica in their world monograph, but
provided only the vegetative details of
the haplophase (gametophytic organiza-
tion). Unfortunately, we also did not
succeed in collecting I. indica from
India, though a number of collections
have been made in Khasi hills and
neighbouring areas of eastern Himala-
yas during the past three decades or
more. Although this species has been
listed in Chopra’s4 and Parihar’s5,6 cen-
sus of Indian liverworts based on earlier
reports, it has never been reported from
any other part of the globe – hence it is
strictly endemic to India. During the
study of type specimen obtained from
the Farlow Herbarium, Massachusetts,
USA, we came across some fruiting
specimens of I. indica in the original
collection of Hooker which seemingly
escaped the attention of earlier workers,
so far as the sporophytic phase is
concerned. As this species appears to
be highly vulnerable for extinction,
we provide here an account of I.
indica with details of the diplophase
(sporophytic generation), exclusively
based on the study of the type speci-
men.
Plants up to 45 mm long and nearly
4 mm broad with leafy axes and apices
somewhat bent downwards, branches
lateral intercalary. Stem rigid, up to 14
cells across diameter, differentiated into
cortical and medullary zones, cortical
cells thick-walled and arranged in 1–2
layers, medullary cells thin-walled,
relatively larger than cortical cells.
Leaves large, transversely inserted,
incubously and imbricately arranged on
stem, lower leaves distant, widely
spreading, bilobed, sinus deep, anterior
lobe large, antical leaf margin covering
the stem and sometimes arching beyond
the stem, lobes often bifid, dentate,
dentition up to 22 in number, acute, 1–5
cells long, 2–3 cells broad at base, cells
thin-walled, 24–60 µm × 12–28 µm to-
wards apex, 32–52 µm × 16–28 µm
towards base, cell wall surface striolate.
Underleaves bilobed, lobes divergent,
sinus deep and broad, lobes dentate,
dentitions acute, rarely 2-celled at apex,
up to 13 in number, 1–7 cells long and
1–6 cells broad at base, cells thin

1484 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 80, NO. 12, 25 JUNE 2001