Jatropha Revisited

The Jatropha curcas plant is emerging as a new source of a high quality biodiesel occurring in most tropical countries.

On a global scale, Jatropha plantations could facilitate fuel and later food production from wastelands, stabilize degraded soils, decelerate erosion and capture wind borne nutrient particles.

FACT SHEET - Jatropha Curcas
Jatropha curcas is an oil seed plant that occurs in almost all tropical countries and is a suitable candidate to:

- Produce high-quality oil that can be refined into high grade Bio-Diesel
- It has the ability to grow in poor quality soils, even wasteland, with little rainfall
- Recultivate eroded soils, preventing soil erosion and shifting of sand dunes
- Create local income and employment

• Jatropha curcas is one of the most productive oil seed plants on the planet
- Jatropha will yield after 16-24m, full yield in year three
- Need to do intercropping in the first 3 years for cash crop before full yield of plants.
- Output of about 1,500 – 5,000l per hectare p.a., depending on soil, climate, management and processing technology
- Through breeding program yielding will improve,
up to 500% yielding improvement can be expected in the long run

• Jatropha curcas can grow in wastelands and has the ability to grow almost anywhere,
for example gravelly, sandy and saline soils. It can thrive on the poorest stony soil and grow in the crevices of rocks.

• Jatropha curcas is drought-tolerant thriving on as little as 250 mm of rain a year,
and only during its first two years does it need to be watered (only in the closing days of the dry season).

• Low-maintenance: Ploughing and planting are not needed regularly as this shrub has a life expectancy of approximately forty years. The use of pesticides and other polluting substances are not necessary, due to the pesticidal and fungicidal properties of the plant.

• Jatropha curcas is not grazed by animals and is not in competition to food crops.

• Valueable residuals: The seed cake remaining after pressing the oil seeds constitutes a source of high value protein – which can be used for:
- biogas production
- producing natural fertiliser through composting,
- and even for animal feed, if properly processed.
- The organic matter from shed leaves enhances earthworm activity in the soil around the root-zone of the plants, which improves the fertility of the soil.

• Jatropha plants absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide; combustion results in a closed greenhouse gas cycle. Jatropha can thus play a vital role in sustainable mobility concepts

• Not in competition to food, as Jatropha is not an edible crop

• Seed production ranges from about 2 tons per hectare per year to over 12.5t/ha/year, after five years of growth.
• Developing nations producing Jatropha biodiesel gain greater energy security, save valuable foreign currency, become exporter of biodiesel, and protect their environment

JATROPHA & CARBON
• Jatropha plants absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide during their live time. Subsequent combustion of the oil results in a closed greenhouse gas cycle. Jatropha can thus play a vital role in sustainable mobility concepts.

• Clean Development Mechanism and Renewable Energy Aspects
- Plant residuals can be methanised for energy generation (such a biomass plant can apply as a CDM project under the Kyoto protocol, approved methodology), or composting
- Depending on the plantation set up, carbon sequestration from reforestation can be claimed
- Future methodologies on the creation of CO2 certificates for the biofuel derived from Jatropha is expected

Mali: Jatropha Oil Lights Up Villages

Some 700 communities in Mali have installed biodiesel generators powered by oil from the hardy Jatropha curcas plant to meet their energy needs, according to Reuters. The Malian government is promoting cultivation of the inedible oilseed bush, commonly used as a hedge or medicinal plant, to provide electricity for lighting homes, running water pumps and grain mills, and other critical uses. Mali hopes to eventually power all of the country’s 12,000 villages with affordable, renewable energy sources.

The landlocked West African nation, at the southern edge of the Sahara desert, is seeking to boost the standard of living of its 80-percent-rural population and to reduce migration from impoverished rural areas. “People have to have light, to have cool air, to be able to store vaccines, even to watch national television,” Aboubacar Samake, head of the jatropha program at the government-funded National Centre for Solar and Renewable Energy, told Reuters. “As things stand, a snake can bite someone in a village and they have to go to [the capital] Bamako to get a vaccine.”

Energy self-sufficiency is another goal of the program. Private international companies have offered to develop the jatropha industry in Mali, but were told the biofuel would not be approved for export until the country’s domestic energy needs were met. Standard diesel and other imported fossil fuels can be costly to transport to remote villages and are unaffordable for much of the nation’s population. Jatropha provides an inexpensive, local source of fuel, with the plant’s seeds containing about 35 percent oil.

Because jatropha can be grown on arid land, requires little care, and can help prevent erosion, it is more likely to complement than compete with food crops—a common concern with many biofuels. “They came to explain the project to us and said that if we grow jatropha it can produce oil to make the machine work,” said Daouda Doumbia, an elder in the Malian village of Simiji, which was recently outfitted with a biodiesel generator. “I grow groundnuts, and this activity can go alongside it as a partner crop,” he explained.

PNOC-AFC intensifies Jatropha Research and Development

June 27th, 2008

PNOC-AFC President and CEO, Peter Anthony Abaya, announced the acquisition of equipment to aid in the research, development and adoption of Jatropha Curcas as an alternative fuel source in the Philippines. He also added that due to the high price of oil in the world market there is an urgent need to fast track biofuel projects in the country.

The equipment purchase was co funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). A list of the purchase equipment:


A small-scale jatropha expeller with which can process jatropha curcas seeds at a rate of 120 kg/hour
Decorticator
Biomass feed boiler/steam
Steam kettle
Filter press

He also announced that the Jatropha Processing Facility at the DOST will be completed before the end of 2008. The Jatropha processing facility will process jatropha fruit to expell the seeds, purify the extracted oil before separating the biodiesel from it. Also announced was the setup of the Biodiesel Testing and Analytical Facility, a Laboratory for analyzing biofuels produced in the Philippines.

These projects are collaborative effort involving PNOC-AFC, DOST; Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research & Development; Industrial Technology Development Institute; and the Metals Industry Research and Development Center.