March 15, 2009
"PARC initiates projects to produce bio-fuel"
IISLAMABAD (APP) — The Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) has formally initiated work on projects aimed at to produce bio-fuel products, enabling the country to save huge precious foreign exchange spent on fuel imports.
The PARC has been working on three projects in Balochistan area to plant three types of saplings that have potential to produce bulk quantity of bio-fuel, Chairman PARC, Dr. Zafar Altaf told the agency in an interview.
“We have identified three salt tolerant plants including Jatropha, Salicornia and Castor oil plant which could grow in salt marshes on sea beaches and could even sustain for five years without water,” he remarked. He said that research work for Jatropha plantation has already been completed and the council would soon order for importing seeds of the plant to be cultivated in coastal areas of Balochistan province.
He was of the view that Jtropha plant has capacity to produce 1100 liter oil per hector where as Salicornia could produce 1600 liters per hector and Castor plant as many as 1800 liter per hector.
Source by: The News |
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