Karanj (Pongamia) – A Locally available diesel substitutes

Honge (Pongamia) oil is being used in engines instead of diesel. Neem, Hippe (Mohua, Madhuca indica) and many other locally available oils can also be used similarly. India has more than 300 varieties of trees whose seeds contain adequate quantities of oil. Most villages in India can grow enough trees to meet their requirements of oil to substitute currently used diesel.

Hints on use of vegetable oils

All vegetable oils need to be filtered and cleaned to remove extraneous materials and particulates for use in diesel engines. However simple filtering will suffice in the villages if they accept to clean the injectors frequently. Simple techniques like heating to 70oC to 90oC need to be adopted to reduce the viscosity to acceptable levels.

Honge (Karanj) seeds: production

• 100 to 200 trees / hectare
• Up to 1 to 2 bags of seeds from 20 year old mature trees / year (1 bag is approximately 80 kg)
• Oil production : 25% by weight in expellers from dry seeds
• Yield/ha/year : 2.5 tons of oil + 7.5 tons of oil cake (fertilizer)

Honge Oil Economics
Sample data

Selling price of seeds in the villages in season (including collection charges)	Rs 5.00/kg
Charges for expelling oil and handling in large quantities	Rs 1.00/kg
Selling price of oil cake with bulk suppliers	Rs 4.00/kg

Sample cost calculations

Cost of 4 kg of honge seeds	Rs 20.00
Expelling charges	Rs 4.00
Sub total	Rs 24.00
Less: Return from selling cake	Rs 12.00
Net	Rs 12.00
Therefore effective price of oil in village	Rs 12.00
Market price of honge oil in suburbs	Diesel Price +/- bargain

Source: Sustainable Transformation of Rural Areas (SuTRA), A Research group of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.