|
|
Jatropha
Introduction
Non edible Jatropha curcas is a succulent shrub from the Euphorbiaceae family. The plant originated from East Africa and is known today in many countries throughout the tropics. Jatropha has good drought resistance characteristics, and can grow on exhausted and sandy soils, except clay soil and water logged area. It is also good for protecting soil and to prevent erosion on hills. Jatropha is a perennial tree, which has a life span of 40-50 years and can bear fruits for 25 years. The fruit of the Jatropha curcas is also called physic nut or purging nut and it contains curcin, a toxic substance that healers used to prescribe as a strong purgative. A close relative, Jatropha macrantha, is known in South America as a particularly strong aphrodisiac. Jatropha has been used in many regions of the world by the locals. As the shrub is inedible to animals, Jatropha plants were traditionally used as living fences to prevent animals from grazing the fields. The oil was also traditionally used in villages of countries such as India to light lamps. Jatropha started gaining the attention of the world from the start of this century, as scientists, businesses and entrepreneurs began looking for alternative sources of energy and biofuels.
Jatropha - Cultivation and Harvesting
Jatropha can be cultivated in monoculture, can be included in mixed cropping, or used as live-fences. Jatropha being a perennial crop, provides yields of up to 50 years in a good establishment. An important requirement for its cultivation is the provision of good drainage. Jatropha trees grow best with ample supplies of hot weather and medium to low rain- fall. Tropical and subtropical districts provide the required temperatures.
Seeds are ready for harvesting around 90 days after flowering when the fruits have changed from green to yellow-brown. In wet climates, fruiting is continuous throughout the year, while the harvest may be confined to two months in semi-arid regions. The fruits do not ripen together, requiring weekly picking and making the harvest labor intensive and difficult to mechanize. The yellow and brown fruits are harvested by beating the branches with sticks to knock them to the ground, or by hand picking. The fruits are dried and the seeds removed from the fruit shells by hand, by crushing with a wooden board or by using a mechanical decorticator.
The chart given below provides an overview of methods and processes of Jatropha cultivation.
Jatropha Cultivation
Jatropha Oil Production
Jatropha seed is grown commercially on plantations but also harvested from wild plants. The seeds contain anywhere between about 25-35 percent oil by weight. To extract the oil they must be crushed and pressed. The oil thus extracted is purified, and the purified oil is further refined.
The main stages thus in the production of Jatropha oil are:
a. Extraction of oilb. Purification of the extracted oilc. Refining the purified oil.
Extraction of oil from Jatropha seeds is done in a manner similar to that for most other oil seeds. The ripe seeds are allowed to dry, when they split open and discharge the seeds. The seeds are dehulled after harvesting. Dehulling can be done by hand (laborious) or, more commonly, by machine. Small-scale hand-operated dehullers are also available. The dehulled seeds are cleaned, cooked and dried prior to oil extraction. Cooking is done to coagulate protein (necessary to permit efficient extraction), and for efficient pressing.
The first stage of oil extraction is pre-pressing, normally using a high pressure continuous screw press – called the expeller. Extracted oil is filtered, and the material removed from the oil is fed back into the stream along with fresh material. Material finally discharged from the press, called Jatropha cake, contains 8-10% oil. It is crushed into a coarse meal, and subjected to solvent extraction with heptane to extract further oil.
Schematic for Seed to Biodiesel
Source: http://www.Jatrophacurcasindia.com/biodiesel.htm
Jatropha Uses
- J. curcas contains rare natural products, for example cyclic peptides, which are known to be potent antibacterial, anticancer and immunosuppressive drugs.
- Two major cyclopeptides, curcacyline A and B have been isolated from J. curcas latex consisting of nine amino acids as known for the commercially used cyclosporine. For both natural products significant immunosuppressive activity was found.
- Lectins are of high pharmaceutical interest because of selected drug targeting properties for cancer cells, parasitic microorganisms and immunocompetent cells. Jatropha lectins are present in safe and non toxic levels in Jatropha varieties. Study on non-toxic lectins for drug targeting strategies is essential since it is actually an emerging field in nanobiotechnology.
- In addition to its emerging use as a biofuel, Jatropha oil is already being used in many rural communities for rural electrification and as a local cooking fuel.
There could be more uses for Jatropha plant and its oil in future.
Possible Future Medicinal Uses
Commercial exploitation for biopharmaceuticals production is one of the prospective applications of this plant. The leaf, fruits, latex and bark contain glycosides, tannins, phytosterols, flavonoids and steroidal sapogenins exhibit wide-ranging medicinal properties.
- Investigation of the coagulant activity of the latex of Jatropha showed that whole latex significantly reduced the clotting time of human blood.
- The plant products exhibit anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activities.
Potential Industrial Uses
- Industrial enzymes - Recently, experimentation on solid-state fermentation of Jatropha seed cake showed that it could be a good source of low cost production of industrial enzymes
- Marking ink - All parts of the plant exude sticky, astringent latex that dries to a reddish-brown brittle substance resembling shellac which can be used as marking ink.
- Plant protectants - The various metabolites present in the plant act as therapeutic agents and plant protectants.
- Lubrication oil - Tests have shown that pure Jatropha oil can be used as lubrication oil during 400 running hours in slow turning diesel engines and in a few other cases.
- Plastics and synthetics - The proteins in the Jatropha oil cake could be used as raw material for making plastics and synthetic fibers. Government of Philippines has planned bioplastics Production from Jatropha by-products and wastes. (2007)
- Improving the economics of Jatropha biodiesel production - The efficiency and profitability of the Jatropha biofuel industry increases with the commercial usage of by-products like Jatropha cakes and glycerol generated during the process of oil extraction.
- The Jatropha cake is an excellent organic fertilizer, can be burnt for power generation, and used for the production of biogas, producer gas, briquettes and several products like surfactants and lubricants.
- Glycerol, the by-product of Jatropha biodiesel production, can be used for production of propylene glycol, which can be used for making unsaturated polyester resins, poly ether polyols, functional fluids, cosmetics and toiletries flavour. Propanediol produced from glycerol has a number of applications in laminates, composites novel polyesters solvents, and special polymers. Liquid phase hydrogenolysis of glycerol can result in the formation of propylene glycol and ethylene glycol for manufacture of polyester fibre and synthetic cloth.
Cooking Fuel
There are clear advantages to using plant oil instead of traditional biomass for cooking. These include the health benefits from reduced smoke inhalation, and environmental benefits from avoiding the loss of forest cover and lower harmful GHG emissions, particularly carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides.
The high viscosity of Jatropha oil compared to kerosene presents a problem that necessitates a specially designed stove. There are two basic designs – one uses pressure to atomize the oil and one uses a wick.
Pressure stove is difficult to use. Designed by the University of Hohenheim, it requires pre-heating with alcohol or kerosene and frequent cleaning to remove carbon deposits.
Wick stove requires further improvement because the viscous oil does not rise up the wick as easily as kerosene and the oil does not vaporize, which means that it leaves carbon deposits on the wick as it burns.
The flow chart that follows shows that the fatty acid obtained after refining Jatropha oil can be modified to produce a range of biodegradable plastics.
Jatropha Oil Market
- Based on data available from various regions and from surveys done by organizations such as GEXSI, it can be inferred that the area under which Jatropha is cultivated will grow at a CAGR of about 20% for the next 4-5 years. It is expected that there will be a total of about 5 million hectares by 2010 and 13 million hectares by 2015.
- The total investment in Jatropha could total close to about US$ 10 billion by 2012.
- Many countries around the world actively support Jatropha cultivation, and such government support is critical for the growth of the Jatropha industry. Especially during times when the crude prices are low and Jatropha biodiesel becomes non-competitive, it will be difficult to spur the growth the Jatropha industry without government support.
- Intercropping is widely practiced in the Jatropha industry, specifically owing to the fact that the yields will be marginal during the first few years. One of the crops that is being acticvely considered for intercropping is castor, owing to the fact that castor can grow in lands that are suitable for Jatropha.
Jatropha Companies
We provide a brief report on the current status of efforts for the prominent companies in this industry.
D1-BP Fuel Crops
D1-BP Fuel Crops Limited, a joint venture between BP and D1 Oils plc, was formed in October 2007. The partnership aims to make more sustainable biodiesel feedstock available commercially through the planting and cultivation of Jatropha curcas, a low-cost, sustainable biodiesel feedstock.
Up to 31 March 2008, D1-BP Fuel Crops has planted or obtained rights to off take from a total of 192,016 hectares of Jatropha worldwide. Planting is concentrated in Southern Africa, India and South East Asia.
Website: www.d1plc.com/
Mission Biofuels
Mission NewEnergy Limited is a global renewable energy provider with operations in Australia, Malaysia, India, China and Mauritius.
Mission has a well-developed upstream feedstock business in India, focused on the use of Jatropha Curcas. The multi feedstock capability of the refinery allows the company to use other quality feedstock too. The company has an extensive field network to manage harvesting, storage, extraction and transportation of Jatropha oil and seeds.
Website: www.missionbiofuels.com/
Sun Biofuels
Sun Biofuels has selected Jatropha curcas as the preferred feedstock for biofuel production. SBF has ploughed and prepared one thousand hectares of land for planting on its farms in Mozambique. Planting of Jatropha curcas is anticipated to begin in January 2009. A further two thousand hectares are currently being prepared for planting and it is anticipated that this further area of land will be planted in 2009. Approximately five hundred people from the local communities are already employed by the project.
Website: www.sunbiofuels.co.uk
GEM Biofuels
GEM BioFuels has been established to supply Jatropha-based feedstock to the rapidly growing global biodiesel market. The business was founded in Madagascar to produce Jatropha oil for use as a biodiesel feedstock. As announced in March 2009, the extent of GEM’s current planted area is 55,700 hectares.
Website: www.gembiofuels.com
Energem Resources Inc
Energem Resources Inc (Energem) is a renewable and alternative energy resources company engaged in 10 African countries and China in long term projects in the energy sectors. Energem Biofuels Limited (“EBL”) is the alternative energy division of Energem Resources Inc.
At present EBL have two core projects. The first project, situated in Mozambique, was initiated in mid-2007 and is aimed at farming Jatropha. The second project was initiated in 2003 in Kenya and comprises an ethanol plant
In Mozambique, EBL acquired 70% of a research and development company that had spent approximately four years developing an optimal, integrated farming approach to a Jatropha-based biodiesel feedstock.
Energem Renewable has been formally allocated by the Mozambique government the rights to 60,000 hectares of land in Gaza Province and is in discussions over the allocation over a further 60,000 hectares in further provinces in light of the progress the company has achieved to date.
Website: www.energem.com
Jatoil Limited
Jatoil Limited is a green energy company whose business is based on establishing plantation projects in South East Asia to grow oil-yielding Jatropha curcas.
Jatoil has expertise in the cultivation and processing of Jatropha, and aims to establish a dominant trading platform in Indonesia and Vietnam, and develop a business mode that can be applied to other countries such as Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
Jatropha Plantation Location: Lampung and Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia, Vietnam.
Website: www.jatoil.net
SG Biofuels
SG Biofuels is bringing the opportunities of Jatropha to reality through an integrated portfolio of elite region-specific cultivars and advanced plantation development services. Featuring the industry’s most advanced breeding and genetics program, the JMax Jatropha Optimization Platform will enable the production of high-quality, sustainable Jatropha crude oil at a cost of approximately $1.00 per gallon.
Website:www.sgfuel.com
Subscribe
