Contents: Preface. Biofuels: global and Indian scenario: 1. Biofuels: an overview/A.K. Pandey and Pankaj Bhargava. 2. Biodiesel security: importance of multiple non-edible oilseeds/N.K. Sahoo, Jagdamba Prasad and S.N. Naik. 3. Jatropha: an environment friendly fuel and an opportunity for employment generation in rural and urban India/R.L. Srivastava, N.K. Bohra and D.K. Mishra. 4. Information on Indian jatropha species from internet and literature/Indumathy and P. Ratha Krishnan. 5. Jatropha curcas oil as a promising biofuel oil for future/Bhumika Chauhan, Rashmi and Anita Tomar. 6. Potential of Jatropha plantations in Rajasthan/Prakash Chandra Chaplot. 7. Jatropha The Wonder Plant/Pradeep Kumar Singh. Biofuel potential: current and future prospects: 1. Potential and prospects of biofuels from lignocellulosic forestry residues/Sanjay Naithani, Alok Kumar Dubey, Gyanesh Joshi and P.K. Gupta. 2. Production of biodiesel from high free fatty acid neem (Azadirachta indica) oil/Subhalaxmi Pradhan, N.K. Sahoo, P.K. Rout and S.N. Naik. 3. Inter-population variability of Jatropha curcas L. accessions characterized by RAPD markers/Mamta Sahu, Mohd. Akram and Munish Kumar. 4. Isolation of Acaulospora species from Jatropha curcas L. and Pongamia pinnata Pierre/Madhavi Kamalvanshi, Anil Kumar, Anuradha Jha and Ashok Shukla. 5. Clonal propagation of Pongamia pinnata (L) Pierre through stem cuttings/R. Nainamalai, Bhimi Ram and T.S. Rathore. 6. In vitro regeneration of Jatropha curcas/Pankaj Bhargava, S.K. Tiwari, Amit Pandey, M.P. Goswami and Shweta Mishra. 7. Scope and utilization of by-products of biodiesel/Anubha Srivastav and A.K. Pandey. 8. Ultradesiccation, an effective tool for the conservation of an important biodiesel seed, jatropha/J. Radhamani and Garima Srivastava. Biofuels and environment: 1. Jatropha curcas: a solution for moisture stress shifting cultivation areas of northeast region/B.K. Pandey, H.O. Saxena, Y.C. Tripathi and P. Hazarika. 2. Jatropha curcas - a potential species to reclaim silica mining area/Kumud Dubey, A.K. Pandey and K.P. Dudbey. 3. Effect of frost on Jatropha curcas plantations/V.R.R. Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Sanjay Singh, Ritesh Sharma, Harish Chandra and Kshitij Malhotra. Biofuels: challenges and sustainability issues: 1. Why digesters exclusively fed with cattle dung did not sustain in biogas production?/P.C. Suryawanshi, M.R. Patil, A.B. Chaudhari and R.M. Kothari. 2. Handling and processing Jatropha seeds for long-term conservation/J. Radhamani and Garima Srivastava. 3. Jatropha curcas (L.) - seed production and seed handling/R. Anandalakshmi, B. Gurudev Singh, Rekha R. Warrier and V. Sivakumar. 4. Biofuels: performance characteristics of gasoline and diesel passenger cars/Sunil Pathak, Yograj Singh, Vineet Sood and S.K. Singal. Biofuels plantation development and management: 1. Factors to consider in managing large scale plantations/Satish Lele. 2. Nursery techniques for healthy Jatropha seedlings/Gohil Rajendra Singh. 3. Propagation of Jatropha curcas through shoot sprouts/Dinesh Kumar, Sanjay Singh, Vishavjeet Kumar, Ritesh Sharma and Kshitij Malhotra. 4. Canopy development and management of Jatropha curcas for higher seed yield/K. Chalapathy Reddy, Vishal V. Naole, Tarun Thakur, V.K. Kiran Kumar, B.H. Raghu and Satyavir Singh. 5. Comparative evaluation of jatropha clones (grafted) and seed source/P. Masilamani, K.T. Parthiban, M. Paramathma and K. Annadurai. 6. Cloning of Jatropha curcas (L.): an excellent source of biodiesel/Vinod Saharan, Birchand Patel, Rupesh Singh, Rajveer Singh, Anita Sharma and Vimal Sharma. 7. Evaluation of Jatropha curcas accessions under tropical climatic conditions of central India/A.K. Pandey and A.K. Mandal. 8. Response of different nutritional and pruning levels on growth and yield of Jatropha curcas/S.J. Patil, S.M. Mutaval, H.Y. Patil, Girish Shahapurnath and V. Maheswarappa. 9. Study of asexual propagation method in physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.)/Gohil Rajendra Sinh. 10. A study on Jatropha curcas L. cutting based nursery/Kapil Sekhri, Kamendra Singh and Ghanashyam Bhanja. 11. Pongamia pinnata - variability in seed characters and oil content among the plus trees of Karnataka/R. Nainamalai, Geeta Joshi, A.N. Arunkumar and Bhimi Ram. 12. Performance evaluation of twenty two provenances of Pongamia pinnata (Karanja) in Madhya Pradesh/A.K. Pandey, Dhan Shri Sharma and A.K. Mandal. 13. Initiatives by NABARD in promoting and funding of biodiesel plantations on wastelands/M.S. Haque and K.G. Karmakar. 14. Economic evaluation of lab-scale biodiesel production from Pongamia pinnata/Swati Dindorkar and S.J. Kakde. 15. Screening of some oil bearing seed plants of subtropical region of Madhya Pradesh for biodiesel production/Gulab Singh Thakur and P.S. Bisen. 16. Biodiesel production technology - looking ahead/Naveen Kumar.

In recent times serious concerns have been expressed both by developed as well as developing economies of the world over the increase in global warming, ozone layer depletion and number of other environmental problems occurring due to massive carbon footprints left by use of fossil fuels as a result of exponentially amplified demand in transportation and other purposes. The rising and volatile prices of petroleum products compelled entire world to search for new and more efficient technologies and alternative sources of energy. The huge energy demand has forced India to depend on other countries for oil and the country is spending huge amount due to high price of the crude oil in the international market. Biofuels, therefore, assume great importance and has become a high priority. Biofuel is a non polluting, locally available, accessible, sustainable and reliable fuel obtained from renewable sources.

In order to deliberate the key issues by scientific and research community and industry to accelerate the growth of biofuel industry, Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur organized a National Conference on Biofuels: Potential and Challenges from 25-26 February, 2009. The conference has bought together researchers, policy makers, industries and all other stakeholders so that productive discussions can take place on how best to meet India's growing biofuel needs. This book is a edited collection of papers presented during the conference, published in the form of proceedings. (jacket)