More than 30 Indian and some German participants from academia and industry showed great interest in the fundamental and applied lectures which addressed issues of evaporation, combustion and autoxidation of biodiesel or challenges in production, material compatibility and sustainability.
A pathway for rural electrification can be biodiesel and other renewable fuels and related research by Indian science and industry. These communities rely on diesel generators that potentially run on fuels of vegetable oils based on regionally grown plants such as jatropha or karanja.
The workshop was organized by IIT Madras in collaboration with OWI Oel-Waerme-Institut with financial support from the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. The workshop was inaugurated in the presence of IGCS Centre Coordinator in-charge Prof. B.S. Murty and Energy Area Coordinator Prof. Krishna Vasudevan of IIT Madras. The workshop was an integral part of an IGCS / DST research project on “Composition-Property-Performance Relationship of Biodiesel Fuels of Indian and German Origin for use in CI Engines”, in which both IIT Madras and OWI perform their collaborative research work. The goal of IGCS is to initiate and intensify the cooperation between German and Indian scientists in the fields of basic research and application-oriented research, education and training and serves the exchange of information in the field of sustainable development. IIT Madras and OWI are working together since 2014 on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding and have planned to implement an IGCS Winter School on biofuels at the beginning of 2016. Moreover, the construction of a biofuel platform is discussed intensively for the exchange between academia and industry, which should enhance the transfer of technical innovations with its focus on the entire pathway from production of biofuels to use.
