HEC funds bio-diesel research
By Bushra Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Higher Education Commission (HEC) is funding research under its University -Industry Technology Support Programme to identify and short list viable bio-diesel producing plant species in Pakistan where researchers will study its botanical aspects.
Such a study will be useful for research by university students for undertaking mass plantation of the most viable resources and for industry to conduct further experiments on bio-diesel. Dr. Mir Ajab Khan, Assistant Prof. Quaid-e-Azam University will conduct the research in collaboration with Muhammad Asif Iqbal of Clean Power (Pvt) Ltd.
HEC will bear 80 % of the research cost while the industrial partner will provide 20% of the funding.
The aim of this research is to identify and shortlist plant resources that are a suitable source of bio-diesel and to determine production processes and blending requirements of the bio-diesel extracted from the short listed resources.
This process will also develop standardized process for the production of an alternative fuel to petroleum diesel. This alternative fuel is environment friendly, engine specific and more economical compared to petroleum diesel. Bio-diesel can be used in vehicles, power tractors and other agricultural machinery and by industrial diesel generators.
Oil seed crops and plants are all sources of bio-diesel and Pakistan's rich bio-diversity in oil yielding plants makes it conducive for carrying out systematic studies of oil-yielding plants.