1 Jatropha a Viable Alternative Renewable Resource

Hannah Cordell edited this page 2025-01-18 14:05:46 +08:00

Constantly the biodiesel industry is looking for some option to produce eco-friendly energy. Biodiesel prepared from canola, sunflower and jatropha curcas can change or be integrated with traditional diesel. During very first half of 2000's jatropha biofuel made the headlines as a preferred and appealing alternative. It is prepared from jatropha curcas, a plant species 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 very rapidly and it can yield seeds for about 50 years. The oil obtained from its seeds can be used as a biofuel. This can be combined with petroleum diesel. Previously it has been used twice with algae mix to sustain test flight of business airlines.

Another method of jatorpha seeds is that they have 37% oil material and they can be burned as a fuel without refining them. It is also utilized for medical function. Supporters of jatropha biodiesel say that the flames of jatropha oil are smoke totally free and they are successfully tested for easy diesel engines.

Jatropha biodiesel as Renewable Energy Investment has drawn in the interest of numerous business, which have actually evaluated it for vehicle usage. Jatropha biodiesel has actually been roadway checked by Mercedes and 3 of the cars have covered 18,600 miles by utilizing the jatropha curcas plant biodiesel.

Since it is because of some drawbacks, the jatropha biodiesel have not considered as a wonderful renewable resource. The biggest issue is that nobody knows that just what the efficiency rate of the plant is. Secondly they do not know how big 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 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 requires appropriate irrigation in the very first year of its plantation which lasts for decades.

Recent survey says that it holds true that jatropha can grow on degraded land with little water and poor 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 might need high quality of land and might require the same quagmire that is faced by a lot of biofuel types.

Jatropha has one main downside. The seeds and leaves of jatropha curcas are toxic to humans and livestock. This made the Australian federal government to ban the plant in 2006. The federal government stated the plant as invasive species, and too dangerous for western Australian farming and the environment here (DAFWQ 2006).

While jatropha has stimulating budding, there are number of research challenges stay. The value of detoxification needs to be studied because of the toxicity of the plant. Along side a systematic study of the oil yield have actually to be undertaken, this is really crucial due to the fact that of high yield of jatropha would most likely needed before jatropha curcas can be contributed substantially to the world. Lastly it is also very important to study about the jatropha species that can endure in more temperature environment, as jatropha curcas is quite restricted in the tropical environments.