17 Jun 2008
V Ayyappan,TNN
CHENNAI: The next time you travel to Nagercoil or Tirunelveli or Coonoor, the locomotive pulling your train may be running on used cooking oil! In a bid to cut emissions, many diesel locomotives used on non-electrified routes are being run on bio-diesel made of used cooking oil sourced from star hotels in the city. However, Southern Railway's attempt to go green is facing a roadblock - shortage of raw materials to feed its 40,000 litre a month capacity bio-diesel plant at the Loco Works, Perambur. Used cooking oil is the best raw material for producing bio diesel but as it is scarce, Loco Works uses a blend of edible and non-edible oils - like jatropha, pungam and neem- to produce the environment-friendly fuel. "We source 700 to 750 litres of used cooking oil for free from star hotels once a fortnight. We have kept barrels in hotel kitchens and collect them regularly. The idea was to re-use the oil that is wasted after use. But the quantity sourced is not adequate to meet demand now, since many hotels are not coming forward to donate used cooked oil."
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