Alternative fuel: GM, Daimler & M&M plan Jatropha ride

15 Jul, 2008, 0758 hrs IST,Shramana Ganguly Mehta & Avinash Nair, ET Bureau

AHMEDABAD: Driven by soaring crude prices, auto giants General Motors, Daimler Chrysler and M&M have placed their bets on Jatropha. GM and Daimler Chrysler are not just getting the alternate fuel tested on their vehicles but also nurturing Jatropha cultivation for widescale experiments.

Gujarat-based Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) is aiding these companies realise their aspirations to use Jatropha as an alternate fuel in their futuristic engines.

While European automotive player Daimler’s Jatropha plantations across Gujarat and Orissa are already in their fourth year, US auto giant GM will join the race to cultivate Jatropha across 75-80 hectares of wasteland in Gujarat.

General Motors (India) president and MD Karl Slym told ET: “GM has already invested $0.5 million (in the first phase) to get biodiesel derived from Jatropha tested in six of its vehicles at CSMCRI’s facility (at Bhavnagar).” “There does not seem to be an end to the hike in crude oil prices.

GM is very aggressive about using alternate fuel in its vehicles. So be it electric vehicles (tests are on in the US market) or LPG and CNG variants, we are seeking the final answer to the problem. Shortly, we will enter into another agreement with CSMCRI for contract farming of Jatropha,” Mr Slym remarked.

Gabriel buries German biofuels plan

Published: 4 Apr 08 12:09

CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.de/11093/

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Friday that the country would scrap plans to develop biofuels because they were not appropriate for millions of vehicles.

"We will not do it," Gabriel told German public broadcaster ARD.

The VDIK association of foreign automakers said Friday that around 3.3 million vehicles, roughly 30 percent of all foreign cars in the country, were unable to use the mix of ethanol and traditional petrol that Berlin sought to impose.

Gabriel had warned that the project would be abandoned if more than one million vehicles could not use the fuel.

"It is not a measure dealing with environmental policy, but a measure destined to aid the automobile industry," he added.

The news dealt a blow to so-called green fuels which have been presented as a way to reduce global warming but which have also been criticized by ecologists and the German automobile club.

The E10 project was supposed to ensure that 10 percent of petrol used by cars and light trucks in Germany was comprised of ethanol to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But the result was more corrosive than classic petrol and threatened to wear out certain engine parts too quickly, in particular in cars that were more than 15 years old.

The decision is a setback however for the government, which sought to go further than the European Union in setting standards for cutting carbon dioxide emissions. Biofuels were billed as a key contributor to the effort."There is no need for Germany to go it alone," VDIK president Volker Lange said in a statement. "All environmental protection strategy must be harmonized and applied onthe European level."E10 has also come under fire from environmental groups such as Greenpeace, which criticizes the conditions under which colza and soja used in the fuel is grown.

The powerful German automobile club ADAC has noted meanwhile that E10 fuel would represent a surcharge for consumers.

Berlin has nonetheless not abandoned plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared with their 1990 level.

Dropping the E10 project means however that other sectors, in particular electricity production, will have to increase the share of its production from renewable sources to 30 percent from 27.5 percent, Gabriel said.

To meet EU auto emission targets of an average 120 grams per kilometre, the car industry "will also have to come up with other technical measures," he added."That will certainly please auto parts makers," the minister added.

ASIA: Jatropha May Ease Mekong Countries’ Fuel, Food Needs

by Prime Sarmiento

Jun 25 (Newsmekong) -

The jatropha plant is not yet a household word, but experts say it can help economies in the Mekong region cope with both energy and food self-sufficiency needs at a time of surging fuel prices.
The jatropha plant may also earn more points for being a ‘safer’ source of biofuel amid fears that the popularity of biofuels is leading to the prioritisation of energy and profit over food needs. This is because cultivating this hardy plant would not only provide biofuel, but also ensure that agricultural lands devoted to food production would not be diverted to fuel crops.
“Planting jatropha is commercially viable. The main advantage of jatropha is that you can plant it even in idle lands,” according to Mercedita Sombilla of the Philippines-based Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) who is doing a study on the development of biofuel industry in the Mekong region. The study is funded by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (AsDB).
The Mekong countries, whose economic integration has been underway over the past 15 years, are Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and south-western China, specifically Yunnan and Guangxi.
Jatropha oil is obtained from Jatropha curcas oilseed, a tree-borne oilseed that was first cultivated in South America and brought to Africa and Asia by Portuguese traders centuries ago. But it was only recently, owing to the worldwide interest in biofuels and search for alternatives to petroleum products, that jatropha became one of the most sought after source of biofuel.
In a report Sombilla presented in a recent AsDB forum here, Sombilla identified jatropha, along with cassava and sweet sorghum, as having the most potential to be developed as a source for biofuel. Ample land and labour resources, combined with favourable weather conditions, can help not only in mass cultivation of jatropha but also other fuel crops in Mekong region, she said. The development of the biofuel industry is one of the key concerns of growing Asian economies, most of which depend on imported oil to meet their rising energy demands. The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2030, Asia’s consumption of oil will rise by 112 percent and account for 36 percent of world’s energy consumption. But the skyrocketing prices of oil, combined with concerns over climate change, have been spurring Asian economies to look for alternatives to fossil fuel. Biofuels can reduce both their carbon emissions and dependence on imports. Among the Mekong countries, Thailand, Vietnam and Burma have been using palm oil, sugarcane and fish oil as biofuel. But only Thailand has a comprehensive strategy on biofuel development.
Its National Biofuels Committee invests in financing, research and marketing of biofuel. The Thai government plans to boost its biofuel production in 10 years by increasing the country’s cassava yield of 23 metric tonnes per hectare to 50 tonnes per hectare by 2020, and its sugarcane yield from 56 tonnes/hectare to 106 tonnes/hectare in 2021.
According to Amnuay Thongsathitya of the Thai energy ministry, the government is also encouraging farmers to cultivate oil palm and jatropha as biofuel sources.
Possible problems lie however in the fact that biofuel has also been blamed for recent food price hikes. Subsidies - like those provided by the U.S. government to promote the biofuel industry - encouraged farmers to cultivate corn and sugarcane for biofuel production. This crimped global food supply and pushed up food prices, critics say.
“If the current biofuel expansion continues, calorie availability in developing countries is expected to grow more slowly; and the number of malnourished children is projected to increase,” Mark Rosegran, director of the environment and production technology division at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, said in a paper in May.
This is also a major concern in Asia. A massive shift from food to fuel crop cultivation might not only endanger food security also disrupt global food supply – the Mekong region is home to some of the world’s biggest agricultural exporters. Thailand and Vietnam are among the world’s biggest producers and exporters of rice, sugar, cassava and coffee.
“We don’t have enough land to accommodate both food and fuel crops. We can’t sacrifice food for fuel,” said Kan-ichiro Matsumura, visiting researcher at Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies. Still, Matsumura believes jatropha is one fuel crop that will not compete with food crops for fertile lands.
Indeed, unlike other fuel crops as corn and sugarcane, jatropha can thrive even in idle lands and do not require much water. It is also easy to plant and is touted to bring in additional income for farmers.
India, a very strong advocate of jatropha, leads the trend in Asia in using it as biofuel. The Indian government has commissioned research to look into jatropha's potential and ordered state-run oil companies to buy jatropha-made biodiesel. India’s local governmnents also hand out free saplings to farmers.
But Sombilla cautioned that intensive research is needed before any government can encourage large-scale jatropha cultivation. For instance, she has heard reports that jatropha’s oil yield is not that much and views that from income from planting jatropha may not be worth one’s energy.
In Laos and Cambodia, it would be difficult to cultivate jatropha on a large scale as most of the unused land areas are scattered all over the country.
More important, Sombilla said that there is a need for each country and the Mekong region as a whole to craft a comprehensive strategy that will promote the production, use and cross-border trading of jatropha and other fuel crops.
“There is a tendency for farmers to shift to fuel crops because the prices of fuel crops are higher than food crops. So we need to strengthen the food market economy,” Sombilla said. “The government should provide more support services to farmers, like irrigation, to discourage them from shifting to fuel crops.”

Jatoil urges Australia to allow jatropha production

By Erin Voegele

Web exclusive posted July 9, 2008 at 12:45 p.m. CST

Australia-based Jatoil Ltd. is urging the Australian government to allow cultivation of the jatropha plant, which is currently banned as a weed in the country’s northern regions. Jatoil is a green energy company that is focusing on using jatropha oil in biodiesel production. Jatoil’s actions were spurred by the July 4 release of a draft of the Garnaut Climate Change Review, which was commissioned by Australia’s Commonwealth, state and territory governments.

An independent study conducted by Australian National University professor Ross Garnaut, titled “The Garnaut Climate Change Review”, examines the impact of climate change on the Australian economy and makes policy recommendations to improve the prospects for sustainable prosperity in the country.

According to Jatoil Chairman Mike Taverner, in order to meet the challenges outlined in the review, Australia needs to embrace sustainable energy production.

“Jatropha has been proven to be a great source of biofuel that can actually reduce green house gas emissions compared with fossil fuels,” Taverner said. “It grows on arid, marginal land and does not compete with valuable food crops. The sad thing is that it can’t be planted in many parts of this great dry land of ours, which is crying out for innovative ways of combating climate change, because it is seen to be an invasive weed.”

Jatropha is an inedible evergreen shrub that is resistant to drought and pests and can be grown in arid conditions unsuitable for food production. Oil produced by the plant’s seeds can be used to manufacture biodiesel, and can be harvested within the first year of planting.

“Biofuels are fundamental to a future climate-friendly, energy economy,” Taverner said. “Jatropha can become a central source of biofuel. Jatropha is being grown on a commercial scale in other parts of the world and review of Australian regulations is required to explore and utilize this non-food energy resource.”

Jatoil plans to become a leader in supplying jatropha-based biofuel to Asia. The company has signed a joint venture in Vietnam, as well as a similar arrangement in Indonesia, and is investigating opportunities in several other Asian countries.

Jatoil’s venture in Vietnam has started planting 100 hectares (247 acres) of jatropha on its first biofuel farm in Ninh Thuan Province, north-east of Ho Chi Minh City. A similar biofuel farm in Hoa Binh Province will house laboratories in conjunction with Vietnamese government research departments. The company has also begun to form partnerships with farmer co-ops that will recruit farmers to plant jatropha on their own land, with the goal of producing jatropha on 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres) at each location.

“By October this year, we will be producing biofuel in Ninh Thuan,” Taverner said. “We can then show people that jatropha can power their trucks and farm machinery. Once they see what can be done and that they can benefit from planting jatropha, we believe production will expand rapidly.”

Within 18 months, Taverner said the company expects to be supplying jatropha-based biofuel for the local market in Vietnam – which is keen to develop domestic supplies.

“We would really like to bring the skills that we are developing in Asia back to Australia, where we can see there is a crying need for the cultivation of a non-food crop that is a rich source of biofuel,” Taverner added. “Although there would be different challenges to cropping jatropha in Australia, the opportunity surely requires investigation.”

Launch charts a first in Jatropha

Wed, Jan 30, 2008
The Star

KOTA KINABALU, MALAYSIA: Jatropha biodiesel fuel was used for the first time yesterday in a Toyota Land Cruiser in the country.

Appropriately, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was the one chosen at the Sabah Development Corridor Expo to fill the vehicle with the biodiesel fuel derived from Jatropha curcas seeds planted in Sabah on a trial basis.

The Jatropha curcas tree is native to Central America and the Caribbean and its seeds yield a non-edible oil, utilised to make biodiesel fuel.

Briefing the Prime Minister on how the fuel could be used without making any changes to vehicles, Sabah Land Development Board (SLDB) officials said that the Jatropha biodiesel fuel had been successfully used in India.

SLDB general manager Jhuvarri Majid said that their immediate plans were to cultivate a 10ha plot of land together with Malaysia-India partners Borneo Alam Ria Biomatrix (Sabah) Sdn Bhd to ensure sufficient seedlings as well as transfer of technology.

Jhuvarri said that SLDB was planning to cultivate Jatropha on a commercial basis as they believed it could help in eradicating poverty in Sabah.

"People in the interior can work six-acre plots of land provided by SLDB and can earn at least RM1,500 a month," he said.

He said three companies - Nihon Biotech Inc (Japan), Kelana Stabil Sdn Bhd (a US-based company) and TKM Resources Sdn Bhd (A South Korea-based company) - were keen to be involved in the Jatropha industry.

The three companies, which have promised to buy the fuel for export to their respective countries, hope to inject about RM300mil into Jatropha cultivation if land was provided.

They believe that the Jatropha curcas could be planted in interior areas of Tambunan, Keningau, Tenom and Nabawan to help poor farmers overcome poverty.

The potential to run engines on biofuel goes all the way back to Rudolph Diesel's successful trials using peanut oil a century ago.

Yet it is only now, with the transport sector likely to be the fastest growing contributor to greenhouse gas emissions this century, and diesel prices climbing steadily as oil appears scarcer and less secure, that the advantages of biodiesel are being appreciated by governments around the world. However, there is as yet no source of biodiesel that is cheap and plentiful enough to meet the potential demand. Running trucks on used cooking fat from fast food outlets is not going to be a large scale option.

However, across the developing world there's growing excitement about the possibility that an up-to-now obscure tree, Jatropha Curcus, might offer a sustainable, large scale source of biodiesel. This non-edible shrub is planted as a hedge in both Africa and India, and its beans are used as a laxative in traditional medicine. When crushed the beans produce oil that can be refined into biodiesel.

According to the International Energy Association, the use of oil, including diesel, for road transport will double in the next 25 years and greenhouses gases will increase commensurably. In the EU, legislation is already in place to mitigate this by increasing the proportion of biodiesel in Europe's transport energy mix. The EU biofuels directive requires a minimum level of biofuels as a proportion of fuels sold in the EU of 2% by 2005, 5.75% by 2010 and 20% by 2020. The main green fuels will be ethanol and biodiesel, and demand for biodiesel is expected to be up to 10.5 billion litres by 2010.

If that demand can be met, it will be good news for the environment and for our general health. While combustion of any fuel releases CO2 into the atmosphere, biodiesel produces lower emissions than mineral diesel. Furthermore, because it comes from crops that absorb CO2 as they grow, biodiesel's overall contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is extremely low. A 1998 biodiesel lifecycle study, jointly sponsored by the US Department of Energy (USDE) and the US Department of Agriculture, concluded that pure B100 biodiesel reduces net CO2 emissions by 100 percent compared to petroleum diesel. With a B20 mix (a 20% bio-diesel solution), the net CO2 emissions are reduced by 20%. Compared with mineral diesel, biodiesel reduces particle emissions (PM) by 30%, carbon monoxide (CO), which affects air quality and human health, by 50%, and sodium monoxide (SOx) by 50%. Unlike mineral diesel, bio-diesel is non-toxic and is biodegradable.