Friday, August 8, 2008

Brazil Opens its First Commercial Jatropha Biodiesel Facility


Tocantins, Brazil

Brazil's first commercial jatropha biodiesel project goes into operation this month following the delivery of BioDiesel Technologies' (BDT) processing unit. BDT will deliver a further four processing units to increase the plant capacity to 40,000 t/y by the end of the year.

Project operator, Compahnhia Productora de Biodiesel de Tocantins, has formed agreements with local cooperatives and small farmers in the state of Tocantins to supply the biodiesel facility with the required feedstock. This has led to the establishment of 48,000 hectares of jatropha plantation, which will give an important boost to the local agricultural community. Jatropha, a non-edible high yielding oilseed crop, will provide a cheap and stable feedstock supply for the plant.

The multi-feedstock technology provided by BDT will also allow the use of animal tallow for the manufacture of biodiesel. This could prove to be a significant source of income to the large slaughterhouse industry within the Tocantins state, which has over 6 million head of cattle.

This operation, bringing local agricultural communities into the biofuel production process, will form the model upon which future Biodiesel operations in Brazil will be constructed; hence President Lula will show his support for the project in September. Brazil has introduced mandatory blends of 2% by 2008 and 5% by 2013 as well as numerous tax incentives for biodiesel producers that source their feedstock from local communities.

Compahnhia Productora de Biodiesel de Tocantins is examining project sites for a further two projects within the region, taking total regional production to over 120,000 tons of biodiesel per year.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Rubber Board takes charge of Jatropha plantations


7 May 2008
By Ooi Tee Ching

THE Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB) has been put in charge of jatropha plantations, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin said.

This means MRB will develop high yielding jatropha clones and regulate large-scale jatropha plantations on marginal land.

This way, jatropha plantations will not compete for agriculture land meant for food production, Chin said, adding that the land will be located far away from fertile agriculture land meant for food crops.

"MRB will research and develop jatropha clones that will yield high oil content," he told Business Times after officiating the soft launch of the International Rubber Conference (IRC) & Exhibition 2008 in Kuala Lumpur on Monday night.

The IRC series is a calendar event among rubber experts worldwide. MRB will host the IRC 2008 and more than a thousand delegates are expected to attend the conference in Kuala Lumpur from October 20 to 23.

MRB director general Datuk Kamarul Baharain Basir explained that the government plans for jatropha on a commercial scale and the oil extracted will be used as biodiesel feedstock.

"In future, jatropha can be planted mono-crop or interspersed with rubber trees. Jatropha doesn't need that much water, its genetic make-up is similar to that of the rubber tree," Kamarul Baharain said.

With an initial allocation of RM2 million, MRB had already planted 2ha with various jatropha strains sourced from Thailand, Myanmar, India, China, Indonesia and the Philippines.

"By mid-2009, we hope to expand the seedfield spread of variants to 38ha," he added.

Source: Business Times Online