The Hindu : Front Page : Karunya University set to become an eco-friendly campus

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Tuesday, Jun 05, 2007
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Karunya University set to become an eco-friendly campus

Amutha Kannan

GREEN COVER: Jatropha cultivated on the university campus in Coimbatore. - Photo: M. Periasamy

COIMBATORE: Karunya University has embarked upon an ambitious project to generate bio-diesel from jatropha seeds. It has proposed to raise a total of 200 acres of jatropha under irrigated conditions. It already has 110 acres of jatropha.

It is a bid by the university to make its campus self-reliant on clean energy, and also aimed at avoiding any contribution to global warming. Another impetus to embark on the project was the mounting energy bills of the university that went as high as Rs. 1.79 crore last year.

About the novel concept, the university's Vice-Chancellor P.K. Philip says: "Our university is located in a rural area. Power supply is entirely from the rural network. Since it is free, there are frequent power cuts. The university needs nearly 1.75 MW power a day. We have been using petroleum-diesel engine driven generators for our backup. We decided to experiment with jatropha to use its seeds for generating bio-diesel to be used for our back-up facility."

Also some 700 acres of fallow vacant land had to be utilised. The university began planting jatropha seedlings in September 2005. These have now yielded well. The Forest Department of the Forest College and Research Institute, Mettupalayam, guided them by way of training.

"Oil extraction from the seeds using a composite expelling unit has also begun. The initial oil that was extracted was processed using the methanol route. The resultant bio-diesel was tried out in a laboratory as well as in power generating diesel engines on campus in a 20:80 ratio blend with petroleum diesel successfully," says the Vice-Chancellor.

Regular use is expected to begin as soon as sustainable amount of crop becomes available from the plantation on the campus.

The university has also identified jatropha oil as a fuel to generate steam.

The university has spent Rs. 3 lakh for all the activities. There are plans to recycle the entire wastewater and sewage generated by the 6,000 students, faculty and their families living on the campus.

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