1 Jatropha a Practical Alternative Renewable Resource
Monroe Overstreet edited this page 8 months ago


Constantly the biodiesel market is trying to find some alternative to produce renewable resource. Biodiesel prepared from canola, sunflower and jatropha can replace or be combined with conventional diesel. During very first half of 2000's jatropha biofuel made the headlines as a popular and appealing alternative. It is prepared 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 deserts. The plant grows really quickly and it can yield seeds for about 50 years. The oil got from its seeds can be used as a biofuel. This can be blended with petroleum diesel. Previously it has been utilized two times with algae mix to fuel test flight of airlines.

Another favorable approach of jatorpha seeds is that they have 37% oil content and they can be burned as a fuel without improving them. It is likewise utilized for medical purpose. Supporters of jatropha biodiesel state that the flames of jatropha oil are smoke totally free and they are successfully checked for simple diesel motor.

Jatropha biodiesel as Renewable Energy Investment has attracted the interest of many companies, which have tested it for automotive usage. jatropha curcas biodiesel has actually been roadway checked by Mercedes and three of the automobiles have covered 18,600 miles by utilizing the jatropha curcas plant biodiesel.

Since it is since of some drawbacks, the jatropha biodiesel have not considered as a terrific renewable resource. The greatest problem is that no one knows that just what the productivity rate of the plant is. Secondly they do not understand how big scale growing might impact the soil quality and the environment as a whole. The jatropha plant requires 5 times more water per energy than corn and sugarcane. This raises another problem. On the other hand it is to be noted that jatropha can grow on tropical climates with annual rainfall of about 1000 to 1500 mm. A thing to be kept in mind is that jatropha curcas requires correct watering in the very first year of its plantation which lasts for decades.

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

Jatropha has one main drawback. The seeds and leaves of jatropha are poisonous to humans and livestock. This made the Australian government to the plant in 2006. The government stated the plant as invasive types, and too risky for western Australian agriculture and the environment here (DAFWQ 2006).

While jatropha has promoting budding, there are variety of research challenges remain. The significance of detoxification needs to be studied because of the toxicity of the plant. Along side a methodical research study of the oil yield have to be carried out, this is extremely important since of high yield of jatropha would most likely required before jatropha can be contributed substantially to the world. Lastly it is also really important to study about the jatropha curcas species that can endure in more temperature level environment, as jatropha is quite restricted in the tropical environments.