My Dream Fuel Florida: Jatropha The Next Big Biofuel?

[FayeforCure]

The Next Big Biofuel?
By Tim Padgett / Fort Myers
Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009
Mark Dalton with his jatropha trees in Florida. A Boeing 747 was recently test-flown using a 50-50 blend of jatropha and jet fuel.
Robert Adamo for Time
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Renewable energy, it turns out, does grow on trees. The fruit pods plucked from jatropha trees have seeds that produce clean-burning diesel fuel. But unlike corn and other biofuel sources, the jatropha doesn't have to compete with food crops for arable land. Even in the worst of soils, it grows like weeds. Sound too good to be true? That's why brothers Paul and Mark Dalton chose to name their Florida jatropha company My Dream Fuel.

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If President Barack Obama's green-energy rhetoric is on the level, this should be the year the U.S. gets clued in to what much of the rest of the world is already betting: that jatropha, like other nonfood sources such as algae, will revive a biofuels movement battered of late by charges that it diverts too many crops from too many mouths. India has set aside 100 million acres for jatropha and expects the oil to account for 20% of its diesel consumption by 2011. Australia, China, Brazil and Kenya have also embraced it. In December, a Boeing 747 was successfully test-flown by Air New Zealand using a 50-50 blend of jatropha and aviation fuel. (Watch TIME's video about biofuel tree farmers in action.)

"This is a superior biodiesel," says Roy Beckford, a University of Florida researcher and expert on sustainable farm development. He has been studying different varieties of jatropha and in February plans to publish his findings that trees like those the Daltons are growing (since 2006 they've planted 900,000 near Fort Myers) thrive so well in Florida that they may yield up to eight times as much oil as they do in places like India and Africa. That translates into as much as 1,600 gal. of diesel fuel per acre per year, vs. 200 gal. for stocks that grow in the wild.

This news is likely to be the buzz at the National Biodiesel Conference, which convenes in San Francisco on Feb. 1. Given how record diesel-fuel costs literally drove up food prices last year--tractors and delivery trucks run on diesel--suppliers hope the new Administration will consider jatropha as stimulus-worthy as wind or solar power.

Native to the Caribbean, Jatropha curcas was taken to India in the 1600s by Portuguese sailors who used the seeds for long-burning lamp oil. When Paul Dalton, 54, a Washington child-advocate attorney, decided to invest $500,000 in an alternative-fuel venture, he followed the Portuguese trail to India and found prolific new jatropha varieties being cloned in the city of Mysore. The fuel emits negligible greenhouse gases, and the trees can capture four tons of carbon dioxide per acre (which might make growers eligible for carbon credits on the global market). Says Ron Pernick, co-founder of the alternative-energy research firm Clean Edge: "Jatropha isn't a silver bullet, but it looks very promising."

That's good news not only for energy gluttons like the U.S. but also for energy-starved nations like Haiti, which rarely has enough diesel to power its capital for a full day. My Dream Fuel donates jatropha trees to Caribbean countries in the hope that they won't have to choose between producing enough fuel and producing enough food. "We want to make money with jatropha, but we also want to make a difference," Paul Dalton says. If jatropha can do both, it's an idea that could grow like weeds.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1874835,00.html

[BridgeTroll]

Cool!  I think you have a future as a  Jatropha farmer Faye...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatropha_curcas

Jatropha curcas
Jatropha curcas


Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Embryophyta

Class: Spermatopsida

Order: Malpighiales

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Genus: Jatropha

Species: J. curcas


Binomial name
Jatropha curcas
Linnaeus 1753.

Jatropha curcas, Barbados nut or Physic nut is a perennial poisonous shrub (normally up to 5 m high[1]) belonging to the Euphorbiaceae or spurge family. It is an uncultivated non-food wild-species.

The plant, originating in Central America [2], whereas it has been spread to other tropical and subtropical countries as well [3] and is mainly grown in Asia and in Africa, where it is known as Pourghère. It is used as a living fence to protect gardens and fields from animals. [4]

It is resistant to a high degree of aridity (it can be planted even in the desert [5][6]).

The seeds contain 27-40% oil [7] (average: 34.4% [8]) that can be processed to produce a high-quality biodiesel fuel, usable in a standard diesel engine.


[edit] Botanical features
Leaves: large green to pale-green leaves.
Flowers: more female flowers yield more seeds
Fruits : fruits are produced in winter, or there may be several crops during the year if soil moisture is good and temperatures are sufficiently high.
Seeds: the seeds are mature when the capsule changes from green to yellow.
[edit] Cultivation

Jatropha curcas seedsCultivation is uncomplicated. Jatropha curcas grows in tropical and subtropical regions.[9] The plant can grow in wastelands and grows on almost any terrain, even on gravelly, sandy and saline soils. It can thrive in poor and stony soils, although new research suggests that the plant's ability to adapt to these poor soils is not as extensive as had been previously stated. Complete germination is achieved within 9 days. Adding manure during the germination has negative effects during that phase, but is favorable if applied after germination is achieved. It is usually propagated by cuttings as this yields faster results than multiplication by seeds. The flowers only develop terminally (at the end of a stem), so a good ramification (plants presenting many branches) produces the greatest amount of fruits. Another productivity factor is the ratio between female and male flowers within an inflorescence (usually about 1 female to 10 male flowers - more female flowers mean more fruits)[10]. Jatropha curcas thrives on a mere 250 mm (10 in) of rain a year, and only during its first two years does it need to be watered in the closing days of the dry season. 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.

While Jatropha curcas starts yielding from 9â€"12 months time, the effective yield is obtained only after 2 â€" 3 years time.

If planted in hedges, the reported productivity of Jatropha is from 0.8 kg. to 1.0 kg. of seed per meter of live fence. The seed production is around 3.5 tons / hectare (Seed production ranges from about 0.4 tons per hectare in first year to over 5 tons per hectare after 3 years).

[edit] Propagation
Jatropha curcas has limited potential for vegetative propagation and is usually propagated by seed (Condradiction - see talk page. It is cross-pollinated and propagation through seed leads to a lot of genetic variability in terms of growth, biomass, seed yield and oil content. Besides, the problems of low viability and recalcitrant nature of oil seeds limits the sexual propagation. On the other hand, clonal techniques will help in overcoming the biological problems hindering mass propagation of this tree-borne oilseed species.

Jatropha curcas can be propagated by seed as well as vegetatively. Propagation by seed. Vegetatively, this crop can be propagated by stem cuttings, grafting, budding as well as by air layering techniques.[11] The investigation leads to the recommendation that cuttings should be taken preferably from juvenile plants and treated with 200 micro gram per litre of IBA (rooting hormone) to ensure the highest level of rooting in stem cuttings of Jatropha curcas. Thus stem cuttings, grafting, budding and air layering methods of propagation could be used as a potential protocol for commercial propagation of Jatropha curcas.

[edit] Processing
Seed extraction is made simple with the use of the Universal Nut Sheller, an appropriate technology designed by the Full Belly Project.

Oil content varies from 28% to 30% and 94% extraction, one hectare of plantation will give 1.6t (metric tonne) of oil if the soil is average. [12]

The oily seeds are processed into oil, which may be used directly ("Straight Vegetable Oil") to fuel combustion engines or may be subjected to transesterification to produce biodiesel. Jatropha oil is not suitable for human consumption, as it induces strong vomiting and diarrhea.

A colourant can also be derived from the seed.

[edit] Uses
[edit] Biodiesel
Main article: Jatropha oil
[edit] Other uses
(The information in this section is largely inspired from the Purdue University - Center for New Crops and Plants Products website [13].)

Leaves
The young leaves may be safely eaten, steamed or stewed. Cooked with goat meat, they are said to advantageously counteract its smell.
Pounded leaves are applied near horses' eyes to repel flies in India. HCN (Hydrogen cyanide) is present in the leaves.
Flowers
The species is listed as a honey plant. HCN is present.[14].
Nuts
Sometimes roasted and eaten, although they are purgative.
They can be burned like candlenuts when strung on grass. HCN is present[15].
Used as a contraceptive in South Sudan[16].
Seeds
Also used as a contraceptive in South Sudan[16].
The oil has been used for illumination, soap, candles, the adulteration of olive oil, and making Turkey red oil. Turkey red oil, also called sulphonated (or sulfated) castor oil, is the only oil that completely disperses in water. It is made by adding sulfuric acid to pure Jatropha oil[17]. It was the first synthetic detergent after ordinary Soap, as this allows easy use for making bath oil products. It is used in formulating lubricants, softeners, and dyeing assistants[18].
The seeds in the zone around Misantla, Veracruz are very appreciated by the population as food once they have been boiled and roasted. It is unclear if this is due to the existence of a non-toxic variety of Jatropha in Mexico and Central America, or if the seeds become edible once processed by cooking[19].
It is also similarly reported that Jatropha seeds are edible once the embryo has been removed[20]. Again it may be so because of these seeds coming from a local non-toxic variety. HCN is present.
Roots
Their ashes are used as a salt substitute. HCN and Rotenone are present.[21]
Bark
Used as a fish poison. HCN is present.[22].
Latex
Strongly inhibits the watermelon mosaic virus[23].
Sap
It stains linen. Sometimes used for marking[24].
Shrub
Mexicans grow the shrub as a host for the lac insect, which is used in medicine as hepatoprotective and antiobesity drug. (Picture of lac insect here [4]; drawing of insect, its larva and a colony here[5])
Used for erosion control[25], [1]

[civil42806]

The Next Big Biofuel?
By Tim Padgett / Fort Myers
Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009
Mark Dalton with his jatropha trees in Florida. A Boeing 747 was recently test-flown using a 50-50 blend of jatropha and jet fuel.
Robert Adamo for Time
ENLARGE +Print Email Reprints Digg Facebook Twitter MORE
Add to my:
del.icio.us Technorati reddit Google Bookmarks Mixx StumbleUpon Blog this on:
TypePad LiveJournal Blogger WordPress MySpace

Renewable energy, it turns out, does grow on trees. The fruit pods plucked from jatropha trees have seeds that produce clean-burning diesel fuel. But unlike corn and other biofuel sources, the jatropha doesn't have to compete with food crops for arable land. Even in the worst of soils, it grows like weeds. Sound too good to be true? That's why brothers Paul and Mark Dalton chose to name their Florida jatropha company My Dream Fuel.

Related
More Going Green
In Geneva, Designing a Global Climate-Alert System
Four Years Later, New Orleans' Green Makeover
The Four-Day Workweek Is Winning Fans
Better Bulbs
More Going Green

If President Barack Obama's green-energy rhetoric is on the level, this should be the year the U.S. gets clued in to what much of the rest of the world is already betting: that jatropha, like other nonfood sources such as algae, will revive a biofuels movement battered of late by charges that it diverts too many crops from too many mouths. India has set aside 100 million acres for jatropha and expects the oil to account for 20% of its diesel consumption by 2011. Australia, China, Brazil and Kenya have also embraced it. In December, a Boeing 747 was successfully test-flown by Air New Zealand using a 50-50 blend of jatropha and aviation fuel. (Watch TIME's video about biofuel tree farmers in action.)

"This is a superior biodiesel," says Roy Beckford, a University of Florida researcher and expert on sustainable farm development. He has been studying different varieties of jatropha and in February plans to publish his findings that trees like those the Daltons are growing (since 2006 they've planted 900,000 near Fort Myers) thrive so well in Florida that they may yield up to eight times as much oil as they do in places like India and Africa. That translates into as much as 1,600 gal. of diesel fuel per acre per year, vs. 200 gal. for stocks that grow in the wild.

This news is likely to be the buzz at the National Biodiesel Conference, which convenes in San Francisco on Feb. 1. Given how record diesel-fuel costs literally drove up food prices last year--tractors and delivery trucks run on diesel--suppliers hope the new Administration will consider jatropha as stimulus-worthy as wind or solar power.

Native to the Caribbean, Jatropha curcas was taken to India in the 1600s by Portuguese sailors who used the seeds for long-burning lamp oil. When Paul Dalton, 54, a Washington child-advocate attorney, decided to invest $500,000 in an alternative-fuel venture, he followed the Portuguese trail to India and found prolific new jatropha varieties being cloned in the city of Mysore. The fuel emits negligible greenhouse gases, and the trees can capture four tons of carbon dioxide per acre (which might make growers eligible for carbon credits on the global market). Says Ron Pernick, co-founder of the alternative-energy research firm Clean Edge: "Jatropha isn't a silver bullet, but it looks very promising."

That's good news not only for energy gluttons like the U.S. but also for energy-starved nations like Haiti, which rarely has enough diesel to power its capital for a full day. My Dream Fuel donates jatropha trees to Caribbean countries in the hope that they won't have to choose between producing enough fuel and producing enough food. "We want to make money with jatropha, but we also want to make a difference," Paul Dalton says. If jatropha can do both, it's an idea that could grow like weeds.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1874835,00.html

Oh great another potential massive intrusion of a non native plant, expect it to go the way of Kudzu, Chinese tallows and numerous others.