mission-biofuels-sdn.-bhd

1 Jatropha a Viable Alternative Renewable Resource

Constantly the biodiesel market is looking for some alternative to produce renewable energy. Biodiesel prepared from canola, sunflower and jatropha can replace or be combined with traditional diesel. During very first half of 2000's jatropha curcas biofuel made the headlines as an incredibly popular and promising alternative. It is from jatropha curcas, a plant types belonging to Central America that can be grown on wasteland.

Jatropha Curcas is a non edible plant that grows in the dry regions. The plant grows very quickly and it can yield seeds for about 50 years. The oil obtained from its seeds can be utilized as a biofuel. This can be mixed with petroleum diesel. Previously it has been used twice with algae mix to fuel test flight of airlines.

Another positive approach of jatorpha seeds is that they have 37% oil content and they can be burned as a fuel without improving them. It is also used for medical function. Supporters of jatropha curcas biodiesel say that the flames of jatropha curcas oil are smoke free and they are effectively checked for basic diesel engines.

Jatropha biodiesel as Renewable resource Investment has brought in the interest of many business, which have actually evaluated it for automotive use. Jatropha biodiesel has been road tested by Mercedes and three of the cars and trucks have actually covered 18,600 miles by utilizing the jatropha plant biodiesel.

Since it is since of some disadvantages, the jatropha biodiesel have ruled out as a terrific renewable resource. The biggest problem is that no one understands that exactly what the productivity rate of the plant is. Secondly they don't know how large scale growing may affect the soil quality and the environment as a whole. The jatropha plant needs 5 times more water per energy than corn and sugarcane. This raises another issue. On the other hand it is to be noted that jatropha can grow on tropical climates with yearly rainfall of about 1000 to 1500 mm. A thing to be kept in mind is that jatropha needs proper irrigation in the very first year of its plantation which lasts for decades.

Recent study says that it holds true that jatropha can grow on degraded land with little water and poor nutrition. But there is no proof for the yield to be high. This may be proportional to the quality of the soil. In such a case it might need high quality of land and might require the exact same quagmire that is faced by many biofuel types.

Jatropha has one primary drawback. The seeds and leaves of jatropha curcas are harmful to people and livestock. This made the Australian government to ban the plant in 2006. The government stated the plant as intrusive species, and too dangerous for western Australian farming and the environment here (DAFWQ 2006).

While jatropha has stimulating budding, there are variety of research challenges stay. The value of detoxification has actually to be studied due to the fact that of the toxicity of the plant. Along side a methodical research study of the oil yield need to be undertaken, this is extremely important due to the fact that of high yield of jatropha would most likely required before jatropha can be contributed considerably to the world. Lastly it is also extremely important to study about the jatropha types that can endure in more temperature environment, as jatropha is really much restricted in the tropical climates.