Government-owned marketing major, IndianOil, proposes to process Jatropha Oil along with crude to get green diesel. The process has been scaled at IndianOil's research centre.

"We are planning to carry out large scale trials at Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) shortly," said Mr. Anand Kumar, Director (Research and Development), IndianOil. This process has been tried with vegetable oils overseas. But this will be tested for first time in India, Mr. Anand said. Green diesel is a form of renewable energy source, which is made from living biomass. It is also known to be produced from second-generation technology. Processing of green diesel in refineries doesn't need much different infrastructure from traditional refining process. Alternate fuels has become a big challenge for companies to meet growing demand, cut on carbon emission and earn carbon credits. With the Indian economy growing at a fast pace, demand for petroleum products is likely to increase from 119.8 million tonnes in 2006 to 141.8 million tonnes by 2011-12. In addition, green diesel has better material compatibility as compared to bio diesel, Mr. Kumar said, adding that energy contents of green diesel are equal to normal diesel whereas bio diesel has nearly 10 per cent less energy due to presence of oxygen in it.

When asked about the commercial viability of green diesel, Mr. Kumar said that IndianOil had planned for scaling up trials at CPCL to assess feasibility of the process. "If successful, the process may be adopted by IndianOil refineries for commercialisation," he added.

IndianOil has more than 900 hectares of captive energy crop plantation. Jatropha plantation project has been developed on revenue wasteland in Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh in 2009.