10 August: World Bio-Fuel Day

Every year 10th August is observed as World Bio-Fuel Day in a bid to create awareness about non fossil-fuels (Green Fuels).
Significance of Day: On this day in 1893, Sir Rudalph Diesel (inventor of the diesel engine) for the first time successfully ran mechanical engine with Peanut Oil. His research experiment had predicted that vegetable oil is going to replace the fossil fuels in the next century to fuel different mechanical engines. Thus to mark this extraordinary achievement, World Biofuel Day is observed every year on 10th August.
Observations in India
On this occasion four retail outlets of bio fuel blended diesel were launched by Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. These outlets are located in Delhi, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Haldiya.
About Bio-fuels
They are renewable, bio-degradable, sustainable and environment friendly fuel. It can be seen as alternative to conventional fossil fuels. In case of India its promotion and encouragement can play important role in energy security and can help to reduce the import of fossil fuel and also save foreign exchange.
Present Bio-fuels trend in India
Presently ethanol blended petrol programme is being promoted India. In this case ethanol is blended in petrol with permissible limit ranging from five to ten per cent depending on the availability of ethanol. Bio-Diesel is used in various modes to transportation in India such as Railways, shipping and State Road Transport Corporations.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2015