RIL to produce high yielding jatropha seeds

New Delhi, Dec 3 (UNI) Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has plans to make a bigger mark in the field of bio-fuels with experiments being conducted on producing disease-resistant and high-yielding variant of jatropha seeds.

The company, learnt to enter the segment with its arm Reliance Life Sciences (RLS), is also looking at introducing easy technologies for oil extraction from the seeds.

''RIL is in the process of developing disease resistant, high yielding varieties of jatropha, one of the known sources of bio-diesel. The oil extraction out of the seeds will also not be very hi-tech and can be easily done by local farmers,'' RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Secretary M S Srinivasan said that by 2030, a significant portion of the high-speed diesel in the fuel market would be replaced by bio-diesel.

Bio-diesel has a better use in terms of captive power consumption rather than the transportation sector, which is viable only for experiments, the secretary added.

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