Mysore biotech firm takes the lead in jatropha tissue culture

Posted: Thu, Jan 10 2008. 4:20 AM IST
Seema Singh

Mysore: As jatropha, the promising biofuel crop, gathers attention of government and businesses alike, a small biotech company in Mysore has made a significant contribution to the crop science.

Labland Biotech Pvt. Ltd appears to have developed a proprietary process by which tissue culture plantlets of Jatropha curcas can be grown, from laboratory to the field, on a commercial scale.

The plant biotechnology company was recently chosen by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to multiply the tissue culture clones for field testing.
“It is the only company we are supporting in tissue culture of jatropha as they claim to have established the tissue culture protocol,” said a joint director at of the department, who didn’t want to be named because of internal policy.
Labland emerged ahead of contenders, including Reliance Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd, owned by the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation and The Energy Research Institute.

Most of the jatropha plantations in India today use seed-generated plants, where it’s difficult to maintain the genetic quality of seeds in subsequent generations.
“By using tissue culture technique, it’s possible to mass multiply superior planting material from a source, irrespective of season, climate or volume,” said Geetaa Singh, executive director of Labland.

Scientifically, it’s challenging to produce tissue clones for latex-producing plants such as jatropha, a problem faced in plants such as tea and rubber. Labland is now testing a small batch of tissue clones in controlled environmental conditions, also called “hardening” in scientific terms.

Perfecting this technique in jatropha opens up new avenues for improved varieties as DBT has already identified 1,500 accessions (new members to a plant collection but are not considered varieties yet). DBT has also funded a dedicated jatropha research lab at Labland, which will carry out field trials of tissue culture clones.
“Jatropha is hardly a five-year-old crop; we have to learn and grow with the crop just as the world grew with the palm crop,” said Sudheer Shetty, chairman and managing director of Labland.

Shetty began researching on jatropha in 2002 and now, besides developing tissue culture technique, supplies jatropha seeds both within and outside India. Labland recently spun off its jatropha division as Labland Biodiesel, and expects a turnover of about Rs200 crore from jatropha by 2010.

In a modest beginning, state-owned Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (GSFCL) has selected Labland as one of its two service providers for its 1,100ha jatropha plantation being developed in the harsh, saline regions of Kutch.
“Technologically, Labland is quite ahead of others,” said M.C. Sharma, biotech adviser at GSFCL, which intends to develop a model for jatropha plantation in the state.

Aiming to be one-stop-solution provider for jatropha, Labland has signed letters of intent with companies from six countries, including the US, New Zealand and Brazil, to be their technology partners in developing plantations, ranging from 10 million to 100 million ha. “The Malaysian state of Saravak is offering us 5,000ha for developing jatropha plantation,” said Shetty.

Even though jatropha has been planted in about 100,000ha in the country, according to Shetty, researchers are busy identifying better varieties that are pest- and drought-resistant, yield more oil and overall require less care. Towards that, Labland has collected about 400 accessions from different agro climatic zones and is developing a Jatropha curcas germplasm (genetic material) bank under, laboratory conditions.

Korean Firm Investing $210 million to Develop Jatropha Business

August 22, 2007 by Ron Mahabir

A South Korean company is expected to invest about 210 million U.S. dollars in the Philippines for the development of jatropha, a source of raw material for making bio-diesel, a local daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The 210-million-dollar investment from Korea Technology Industry Co. Ltd. (KTI) will come in the next two years, based on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) it signed on Tuesday with PNOC- Alternative Fuels Corp., a subsidiary of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), the Philippine Star reported.

The MOU would allow the two firms to form a joint venture to undertake the jatropha development, according to the report.KTI will specifically invest 150 million U.S. dollar for 75,000 hectares of jatropha plantation within two years in the tropical Philippines. Sixty million dollars will be used for the establishment of a 300-ton capacity biorefinery by 2009, the report said.

The state-owned Philippine firm would be in charge of earmarking the land for commercial plantation and development of jatropha, it added. The PNOC-AFC is established by the Philippine government to develop biofuels and other alternative energy systems that would reduce the country’s heavy dependency on traditional oil and gas.Currently the oil from Jatropha curcas seeds is used for making bio-diesel fuel in Philippines. The country has passed a law on promotion of using bio-fuel.

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.

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

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.

Zubiri: Jatropha Seeds as Biofuels Source

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

THE PHILIPPINES - With no end in sight to the skyrocketing of fuel prices, the national government is looking into alternative fuel sources to avert a looming economic catastrophe.
This was stressed by Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri who discussed the benefits of using jatropha seeds as a source of bio-fuel during the 49th Araw ng Lanao de Norte celebration.

"Just three kilos of jatropha seeds will already produce a liter of bio-diesel and it will also raise the income of our marginalized farmers," revealed the senator from Bukidnon.

The Republic Act 9367 or Biofuels Act of 2006 was unanimously passed on both houses of Congress and it outlined the use of biofuels and the establishment of the biofuel program.

Identified as possible sources of biodiesel are jatropha seeds and copra (the dried white flesh of the coconut). Sources of ethanol, which is used in gasoline powered vehicles, include cassava and sugarcane which are currently in surplus production.

In the biofuel program, abandoned agricultural lands and non-food producing areas will be used as plantation for jatropha trees. This will help solve the denudation of forested areas caused by illegal logging and uncontrolled cutting of trees for use as firewood.

"This will also be a good reforestation program since trees planted during our reforestation effort will only be harvested after one year for use as firewood," stressed Senator Zubiri.

A conversion kit is now readily available thru Glenn Yu of Seaoil Corp. that converts gasoline-consuming vehicles into vehicles that can run on both pure gasoline or pure ethanol.

The Jatropha Curcas L belt

Jatropha growing won’t be at expense of food crops

Monday July 7, 2008

KOTA KINABALU: Jatropha cultivation in Sabah for the production of biodiesel will not be done at the expense of food crops.

Sabah Land Development Board (SLDB) general manager Jhuvarri Majid, however, said that at the same time research into Jatropha must be stepped up as fossil fuel (petrol and diesel) was a quickly diminishing resource and becoming increasingly costly.

He said this when briefing Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman who was visiting SLDB’s Jatropha-centred booth in conjunction with Farmer’s Day.

Jhuvarri also said that the setting up of the Agro Research and Development Complex in Nabawan was a priority.

“While this complex will remain focussed on R&D of Jatropha, it will also include research into food crops such as padi, fruits and cash crops so as to make Sabah self-reliant in food production,” he said.

According to Jhuvarri, initial results from the SLDB Jatropha trial plot in Binakaan, Nabawan, was encouraging, prompting the agency to go into its second phase to set up the R&D complex and plant Jatropha on a large scale.

“We are in the process of acquiring some 800ha of land in Nabawan for this purpose and hope to start soon.

“There can be no denying that we need to research further into Jatropha as it can be the most suitable feedstock for biodiesel as it is a non-edible oil and be grown on marginal land,” he added.

He said that Jatropha could be a good plantation material for eco-restoration in overlogged land and in forests damaged by fire or over-cultivation.

Japan to embark on jatropha project in Kenya

11/19/2007 10:33:14 AM GMT

KENYA: Japan is about to embark on Kenya's first large scale commercial biodiesel project, which aims to grow jatropha on up to 100,000 hectares (247,105 acres) of land, media reports said quoting a spokesperson from Japan's largest biodiesel producer, Biwako Bio-Laboratory Inc.

Chief Executive Officer Mitsuo Hayashi said the company is confident of starting on a project that will see the planting of 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres) of jatropha curcas plantations to feed biodiesel plants within the next six months to a year, based on the results of a recent feasibility study.

The 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres) of jatropha plantation, which will employ some 10,000 workers, will support the production of some 200,000 tonnes (220,000 tons) of biodiesel per year. Biwako Bio-Laboratory aims to expand the plantation to 100,000 hectares (247,105 acres) within 10 years, Hayashi said.

Jatoil growing more jatropha in Asia

By Hwee Hwee Tan
Filed from Singapore
5/23/2008 1:39:26 PM GMT

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Australia-listed Jatoil Ltd. is banking on jatropha to deliver on its promise as a next generation biofuel feedstock. Jatropha can be grown on arid lands and will not compromise food production, according to Jatoil's Chairman, Dr. Michael R. Taverner. The company is working with business partners to acquire jatropha plantations in Southeast Asia.

In early May, Jatoil and partner, GreenEnergy Biofuels (GEB) established a joint venture, the GreenEnergy Joint Stock Co. to cultivate jatropha in Vietnam. GEB has been actively researching and experimenting with five to six jatropha varieties sourced mainly from Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam over the last four years, according to sources close to the development.

The first phase of the project will see the cultivation of jatropha on four test plots covering 100 hectares (247 acres) of leased land in Vietnam. The joint venture is preparing to plant jatropha in Ninh Thuan, northeast of Ho Chi Minh City, over a four-month period prior to the wet season. The partners will also establish further 25-hectare (62-acre) test plots in the central and southern provinces of Binh Tuan and Hao Binh.

The test plots will allow the partners to facilitate the transition of local farmlands into jatropha plantations during the second phase of expansion. The joint venture intends to acquire 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres) of jatropha plantations through contracts with commercial planters and independent producers.

Meanwhile, Jatoil is also seeking to start up jatropha plantations in Indonesia. Jatoil and its local partner PT Biodiesel Austindo are sourcing for suitable planting sites in Indonesia. The partners have started planting jatropha in about 100hectares (247 acres) of land in the country.

New biodiesel crop Jatropha taking off in S.W. Florida

By LAURA LAYDEN
5:55 p.m., Saturday, April 5, 2008

The roots for a new energy crop in Southwest Florida have been planted.

In LaBelle, a company called My Dream Fuel LLC is cultivating Jatropha curcas, a tree-shrub that shows promise as a new biodiesel crop in the U.S. that could one day power engines and generators.

Nearly 1 million seedlings are in the ground at a nursery in Hendry County and promoters are looking for farmers – here and across the country – to raise them as oil-producing plants.

Researchers say the plant can produce four times more fuel per acre than soy, and 10 times more than corn.

The demand for oil from the plant already is strong, said Paul Dalton, a former child advocate and attorney who owns My Dream Fuel.

“There are about 100 buyers for every gallon you produce,” he said.

His company soon will open a $1.5 million, 15,000-square-foot center for seed crushing and plant cloning at the State Farmers’ Market off Edison Avenue in Fort Myers.

The Jatropha tree, native to Mexico and Latin America, has been grown in other countries, such as India and Africa, for fuel and medicine. It produces fruit with oily seeds that can be crushed to make biodiesel.

In India, there are large plantations with millions of Jatropha trees and My Dream Fuel has a contract with the government to train 1,500 farmers to grow the trees. In China, there are now more than 1 million acres of Jatropha growing.

Locally, Dalton has so much faith in the trees that he expects to put another 1 million in the ground in LaBelle before June.

His company is one of the first to do large plantings of trees in the U.S., he said.

Some of the trees came from a cloning plant in Mysore, India, and some came from the company’s own testing program.

The cloning plant here will be able to churn out plants at the rate of 1 million a month, Dalton said.

“We studied our mother trees that we use to clone for over six years, and we have over 500 of them. So we have the largest bank of mother trees in the world, of any company,” he said.

In Southwest Florida and across the state, more crushing plants are planned to keep up with the expected growth in demand for Jatropha oil.

In Collier County, the small farming town of Immokalee is being scoped as a possible site for a processing plant that would produce biodiesel from the oil.

Leading that effort is Golden Gate Estates resident Dave Wolfley, the owner of Sunshine Biofuels, a start-up company formed two years ago to build an alternative fuel plant.

The biggest issue had been finding the feedstock.

Jatropha is just what Wolfley has been searching for.

“There is a ton of money in it,” he said.

He’s searching for large landowners in Southwest Florida who are willing to give Jatropha a try. He said he’s found a few, but he won’t reveal their names.

Concerned about pollution and the country’s dependence on foreign oil, Wolfley has developed a small processing plant in his garage where he uses waste vegetable oil from restaurants to cook up his own biodiesel to fuel a Jeep and a Ford pickup truck.

Dalton expects his seedlings to go quickly. Last year, his company sold its entire inventory of about 12,000 trees in four days, he said. Back then, the trees were in pots and there wasn’t a nursery.

“We know of a couple of groups from New York and from Spain that want to plant in Texas and Brazil. So in the next couple of weeks, we may exhaust our current supply,” Dalton said.

In Southwest Florida, Dalton is targeting citrus growers with diseased trees and cattle ranchers looking to diversify.

The dreaded canker and greening diseases have left thousands of acres of citrus land sitting bare, which could be used to grow the new energy crop. The hardy Jatropha is more resistant to disease and can survive a three-year drought.

The Jatropha crop has the potential to be more profitable than citrus, Dalton said.

The average farmer can gross a little more than $2,000 an acre annually at current prices, and the plants live 40 to 50 years, he said.

The main expense for the grower is the plant itself. A seedling costs $3, with a $2 planting fee.

My Dream Fuel offers to plant and harvest the trees mechanically for growers. Under the arrangement, growers prepare the fields and maintain them. The plants require an occasional watering and virtually no fertilizing.

“It’s such an easy tree to care for. It doesn’t really require much at all,” Dalton said.

For the first 500 gallons of oil produced, larger growers get all the profits. After that, there’s a sharing arrangement.

In all, My Dream Fuel has about 1.5 million trees in the ground in Southwest Florida.

Eight months ago, Dalton donated 1,500 seedlings to Lee County for several test plots, including one on a nearly 1-acre farm in the Buckingham area.

LaBelle Grove Management in Hendry County also purchased young trees for an experiment of its own.

The test projects have gone well, Dalton said.

A few other growers are trying Jatropha in Southwest Florida, but they’re keeping it quiet, in part because they want to stay ahead of the competition, he said.

Ron Hamel, executive vice president of the Gulf Citrus Growers Association, representing growers in a five-county region, said he hasn’t heard that growers are jumping all over the idea.

But the potential for a new crop has created a buzz in the industry.

“I haven’t heard anything negative about it,” Hamel said.

Locally, environmentalists don’t seem to be raising a big fuss about Jatropha.

“If it lives up to its promise of being a very productive source for biofuel, then great,” said Brad Cornell, a policy advocate for Audubon of Florida and the Collier County Audubon Society.

The society doesn’t support growing corn for ethanol because there’s no efficient way to do it, and there are concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

Roy Beckford, an agricultural and natural resource agent for the University of Florida/IFAS in Lee County, has pushed Jatropha as an alternative crop for South Florida growers for years.

He said it’s actually good for the environment because one acre of plantings, which is about 600 trees, will remove four metric tons of carbon dioxide gas from the air a year.

Beckford is overseeing several experiments with Jatropha in Lee County. He’s also working with a few farmers with plans to grow the trees commercially on 10-acre plots in North Fort Myers and Arcadia.

One grower in Lee County has set aside 200 acres for the promising crop, Beckford said.

“Certainly in our area we are kind of pioneering this whole thing,” he said.

Comments

China to subsidize jatropha planting for Biodiesel

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will promote planting of jatropha, a woody plant, across southwestern provinces to help produce biodiesel and reduce China's dependency on imported crude oil, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration said.
By 2020, jatropha and other forestry products will be able to provide 6 million tonnes of biodiesel and generate 1,500 megawatts of power, he said in a news conference on Tuesday.
Farmers will get subsidies and seedlings in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou provinces and regions to plant jatropha, Cao Qingyao told Reuters.
Chinese oil giant China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, and grains trader Cofco will invest in plants to process the biodiesel.
Jatropha can grow in dry areas and is used to produce non-edible oil for making candles and soap, as well as biodiesel. It is seen as a promising plant for making biofuels since it is able to grow on poor land, and therefore is less likely to displace food crops.
China has not yet released a long-awaited blueprint for biofuel development in the five years through 2010, amid debate over how to balance biofuels with other energy and agricultural policies. Planners concerned that grains-based biofuels would unacceptably lift grains prices have already shifted the focus of the plan to other crops.
Total acreage planted with jatropha could reach 13 million hectares, or about the size of England.
Other promising plants include sugar grass, which can grow in saline and other low-quality land across northern China, the China Daily said this week.
Jatropha will be grown on land reserved for forestry, as well as on land "unsuitable for agriculture," including reclaimed mining areas and oil fields, Cao said, but would not displace remaining original forests
Vast swathes of Yunnan and Guizhou have been completely denuded of trees since the mid-1990s. Some of the plans to replant have focused on crop trees, while in other areas villages have been paid to allow regrowth on critical areas like hilltops above rice paddies.
A unit of offshore oil firm China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, already plans a $290 million, 100,000 tonne-per- year biodiesel plant in Panzhihua, Sichuan Province.

Joint exploration of the potential for a biodiesel industry

Stuttgart, Germany, January 09, 2008

ADM, B CS AG and Daimler AG plan to jointly explore the potential for a biodiesel industry based on Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.). A respective Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the companies. Jatropha, a tropical plant from the Euphorbia family, is seen by the three cooperating partners as a promising alternative energy feedstock for the production of biodiesel. Biodiesel derived from Jatropha nut kernels has properties similar to those of biofuels obtained from oilseed rapes. It is also characterized by a positive CO2 balance and can thus contribute to protecting the climate.

In this project, the companies are seeking to develop production and quality standards for Jatropha-based biofuel. ADM is running several biodiesel refineries worldwide. B CS plans to develop and register herbicides, soil insecticides and fungicides for disease and pest control of Jatropha plants. At the end of last year, Daimler AG completed a wide-ranging five-year research project which demonstrated that Jatropha can be used and cultivated to obtain high-quality biodiesel and studied the use of this fuel in test vehicles. The company will continue to explore the interactions between fuel and engine in vehicles powered by Jatropha biodiesel and mixtures of this and other fuels.

Dr. Peter Reimers, General Manager, European Oleo Chemicals at ADM said: “By diversifying the world’s energy supplies, we increase global energy security and create for many nations the ability to produce fuel from local sources.” Dr. Rüdiger Scheitza, Member of Board of Management of B CS and Head of Global Portfolio Management, said: “Energy is a fundamental and indivisible human need. Sustainable production of Jatropha without impacting food production is not only an interesting option on marginal areas. It might be a further essential key in renewable energy strategies of the future.” Prof. Dr. Herbert Kohler, Vice President Vehicle and Powertrain, Group Research and Advanced Engineering and Chief Environmental Officer of Daimler AG: “Alternative fuels are an integral part of our roadmap towards sustainable mobility. Our research activities within the last years have proven for example, that Jatropha biodiesel can be produced with quality similar to biodiesel from oil seeds. Now, it is time to evaluate the commercial potential of Jatropha biodiesel.”

Jatropha – a promising energy feedstock
Jatropha is actually a “wild plant”, and therefore it has never been professionally cultivated. Recent studies show a potential of approximately 30 million hectares of land on which this plant could be grown, especially in South America, Africa and in Asian countries such as China, India or Indonesia. Since Jatropha can be cultivated on barren land, it does not compete for land that is being used for food production, and thus provides farmers with an additional source of income.

Jatropha originates from Central America, and was transported to Africa and Asia by Portuguese sailors on their voyages round the world. It is a hardy, drought tolerant plant and can be cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical regions, and even on depleted soil. It requires very little water or fertilizer. The plant is an excellent source of renewable energy because its seeds contain more than 30 percent oil. Furthermore, it is excellent for preventing soil erosion caused by water and/or wind. Jatropha can be maintained economically for 30 to 40 years

First Myanmar jatropha harvest ready after 2006 planting campaign

12 March 2008

In Myanmar, the first national jatropha crops are ready for harvest, with up to 7 million acres planted by small farmers, after a national directive in 2006 that all farmers with more than 1 acre of land had to plant a minimum of 200 jatropha seeds to establish a hedge around their landholdings. The ruling junta developed the plan in light of soaring oil import costs, and the biggest anti-junta protests since the 1980s which erupted last year over cuts in diesel subsidies.

Air NZ goes nuts for experimental biofuel

By Stuart Dye

Air New Zealand expects 10 per cent of its fuel - enough to run the entire domestic fleet - to come from a nut grown in India and Africa within five years.
The national carrier has announced it will use oil from jatropha nuts to fuel a test flight this year - the first of its kind using a sustainable biofuel with commercial potential. By 2013 it says the fuel will provide it with one million barrels a year.
Group strategy manager Abhy Maharaj said jatropha met all the airline's "non-negotiable" criteria.

It was cheaper than traditional jet fuel, emitted less carbon dioxide and was socially responsible - it was grown on land unsuitable for food crops, which had not been forest land for at least 20 years.
Air New Zealand has spent $1 million in a year on its biofuels project. Mr Maharaj said when it started oil was about $80 a barrel.
"Now it's above $170 so it's good that we started when we did - and an extra incentive."

Air New Zealand has already begun cutting carbon emissions by reducing weight on aircraft and adopting slower flying times.
But it has also been forced to increase the fuel surcharge for passengers twice in the past two months.
And at the end of May it downgraded its profit forecast to below $200 million, down from the expected $268 million in February.
Captain Dave Morgan, general manager airline operations, said cost was "clearly a factor" but environmental responsibility was "a cornerstone" of Air New Zealand and the country's clean, green image.
The national carrier has been working with Boeing and Rolls-Royce on the biofuel plan.

A date has not yet been set for the test flight, but it will be "in the last quarter of this year" said chief executive Rob Fyfe.
It is also likely to be a world first. Virgin Atlantic powered a jumbo jet partly using coconut oil in February, but Air New Zealand's flight will use a biofuel that is a commercially viable option. One of four engines will be filled with oil from jatropha for the Boeing 747-400 flight out of Auckland.
It is a race against Dutch airline KLM, which plans a test flight this year with a biofuel made from algae.

JATROPHA PLANT COULD BE THE KEY
In a field of volcanic red soil overlooking Pearl Harbour is the future of air travel, according to Air New Zealand.
Jatropha plants standing about 2.5m tall are in neat rows across half a hectare of the 43ha Kunia substation, owned by the Hawaiian Agriculture Research Centre.
The hardy plant that can grow in barren land is not native. Seedlings were brought from Madagascar and India.
Air New Zealand believes that the fruit from this plant - a nut which produces up to 40 per cent of its mass in oil - is the answer to its search for a sustainable fuel source.

The plant takes about 18 months to grow and the nut, from pollination to maturity, about four or five months.
It is drought resistant and is not a food source for insects or animals.
Bob Osgood, former vice-president of the research centre in Honolulu, said, "There's a lot of hype. For example, some of the yield information is way too high. It could be the future of air travel - and let's hope it is - but it's still too early to tell."