Engineering students from the Nadirshaw Edulji Dinshaw (NED) University in Karachi, state that they have successfully produced ‘environmentally friendly bio-diesel’ from fish waste and entrails.
They claim that this way the fish waste will be removed from the environment, in addition to saving revenue spent on fuel imports.
Project Details
The final-year students, Huzaifa Iftikhar, Zaki Ahmed, Muhammad Absar Ahmed, and Talha Ahmed, from the university’s Mechanical Engineering Department, with the Environmental Engineering Department’s head, Dr. Mehmood Ali, as their supervisor, completed this project within two months.
One of the researchers, Absar explained that bio-diesel is produced from plant components, but they decided to use fish waste and seafood byproducts since one million tonnes of fish and seafood are consumed yearly in Pakistan, producing 350,000 tonnes of waste that becomes a source of water pollution.
The same amount of waste can, on the other hand, produce 150,000 tons of oil or 100,000 tons of bio-diesel, up to 20% of which can be added to the diesel products in the refineries.
Production Plant
Dr. Ali, the research supervisor, revealed that a trial plant has been set up, designed independently by the university’s engineering department. It can run on solar power and can produce 10 liters of oil and convert it into bio-diesel within three hours.
Dr. Ali claimed that the bio-diesel produced from fish waste is 12-13% cheaper than conventional diesel. If processed on a pilot basis on a solar-powered unit of up to 100-liter capacity, the cost of this bio-diesel can be reduced by 20-25%.
Cost Savings
Pakistan spent $17.3 billion on diesel import last year, which could be cut by a 100,000 tons through the use of bio diesel. Bio diesel can be produced from fish waste by converting one liter of oil into bio diesel at a cost of around Rs. 180-190.
He further stated that the university is willing to provide design and technical support to potential investors.
