MD – 15 New Fuel for Indian Railway
MD – 15 or Methanol Diesel-15, New Fuel for Indian Railway
MD - 15 UTILITY
Reducing pollution and dependence on diesel
Current state of Railways – with railways reaching almost 100% track electrification, use of diesel has considerably reduced but india has the third largest railway network in the world which has 30% diesel powered locomotives, that require around 2 billion litres of diesel annually. Using MD15 fuel will reduce the diesel fuel consumption by 15% and will result in annual savings of Rs 2,280 crore per year.
Who IS MD – 15 fuel?
MD – 15 or Methanol Diesel-15 – has 14% additives (developed indigenously by IOCL) along with 71% mineral diesel, 15% methanol.
Who has developed the MD – 15 fuel?
Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), in collaboration with the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), has developed a special cost-effective fuel. RDSO’s research and testing vertical entered into an agreement with IOCL and started the work on MD-15, under the Government of India’s methanol mission that aimed at cutting down IR’s dependency on diesel as a fuel. Although the new fuel is a blended diesel with 15 percent methanol, it is not as easy as it sounds, as methanol, which is a single-molecule fuel, cannot be added directly to the diesel.
Size of Indian railways:
Indian railway manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a total route length of 68,043 km (42,280 mi), running track length of 102,831 km (63,896 mi) and track length of 128,305 km (79,725 mi) as of 31 March 2022