The opinions expressed in these articles represent only the point of view of the author, not the opinion of the team maintainig this Jatropha website.

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In Southern Africa, larger areas are under semiarid and arid conditions with a moderate-to-high risk of drought. The drought resistant plant, Jatropha curcas L., Euphorbiaceae that can grow on lands not suited for agriculture and both improve the environment and supply raw material for local communities is attractive for resource-poor farmers. Although Jatropha is commonly planted in Southern Africa, research on cultivation and propagation of Jatropha is limited. This study provides documentation of the germination of Jatropha seeds planted in nursery in containers composed of Kalahari Sand. Sampling period was undertaken from late raining season to the beginning of dry period (February to June 2003). The study shows high viability of the seeds with a mean germination rate above 93 percent and a completed germination within 9 days. Manure during germination phase appears to have a negative impact on the germination. However, the results indicate that manure has a positive impact on the growth rate after germination has been initiated. Likewise, the intensity of watering and temperature seems to have a fundamental impact on the germination rate. Pre-treatment of the seeds did not effect the germination positively.

Abstract

1) Identification / selection of hig yielding plants

Up to now, in many countries Jatropha is well known under different local names, but it was mostly used by farmers as living fences around their homesteads and gardens, sometimes also around their fields, to protect crops against roaming animals. The seeds did not play any important role. Therefore the farmers cannot tell, which are good yielding plants.

Since flowers of the Jatropha plant are only developed terminally, only plants with many branches, i. e. with a good ramification, can produce many fruits. A good plant should have bunches of Jatropha fruits at every end of a branch.

An important effect on the yield of a plant has the ratio between female and male flowers within an inflorescence. Usually a ratio of about 1 female to 10 male flowers is observed. If this figure can be improved, more fruits will be developed within an inflorescence.

2) Multiplication of high yielding plants

Usually Jatropha plants are multiplied by cuttings, because this kind of multiplication is faster than multiplication by seeds

3) Yield of plantations

The yields of plantations have not been carefully measured up to now. This is partly due to the fact, that plantations in full production don’t exist up to now, because the Jatropha hype started 2 years ago (in the middle of 2005), and the Jatropha bushes need about 4 to 5 years until full production. During a Jatropha Conference in the Netherlands in March 2007, the yield in seeds of Jatropha plantations was estimated to 4 to 5 tonnes per hectar and year.

The pruning of the plants will increase the number of branches and keep the plants low enough to facilitate the harvest of the fruits.

4) Economic key-points of Jatropha oil production

An Excel spread sheet shows clearly, how the amount of seeds harvested within 1 hour, influences the production costs of Jatropha oil: The doubling of the harvest (6 kg instead of 3 kg) reduces the production costs from 0.28 to 0.16 USD, which is almost half of the cost
(57 %).

If the costs of the expeller are doubled, from 1,500 USD to 3,000 USD, the production costs of the Jatropha oil stay at 0.28 USD (they mount from 1,104 to 1,122 Riel).

The sale of the oil cake (after oil extraction) is not an economic option, because the minerals are needed as organic fertilizer, otherwise mineral fertilizer has to be purchased.

Banarbas Mawire.

I started promoting Jatropha in 1996 when I was appointed the first Forest extension officer for Binga district upon my return from Cyprus where I trained as a forester for two years.

Oil is the major source (about 40%) of the world’s primary energy consumption. India is currently the world’s eighth largest consumer of oil and is expected to rise to fifth place in the next 20 years. The consumption and demand for the petroleum products are increasing every year due to increase in population, standard of living and urbanization. The petroleum products continue to be the backbone of Indian economy with a share of 33 per cent of the energy basket. In India, there is a deficit of 40 per cent in supply of petroleum products and our petroleum reserves are limited to 6 to 7 years only. The increase in crude oil import affects the country’s economy and its development. In India, the expenditure on crude oil imports has increased sharply from Rs.6,118 crores in 1991 to Rs.90,000 crores in 2002, which is 14.7 times higher than what it was before. This is also expected to rise continuously.

I had worked very intensively with Tinytech while developing the SOE 60 (Sundhara/Sayari) in the 90's. Their interest was to improve their own design for their main market, which has a strong focus on expelling peanuts. Thus it is important to know that the Tinytech press is designed to suit particular this seed. Peanut has a low fiber content thus it is required that the nuts are steamed prior to expelling and this is the reason the Tinytech expeller has a boiler and cooker. This preprocessing is not necessary for Jatropha provided the expeller has the appropriate screw. The type of screw/cage design the Tinytech expeller is using is not the best for Jatropha in fact it requires the preprocessing to perform properly. I am not sure whether Tinytech gives data regarding the total energy needed to expell one kg of Jatropha oil, which to me is important in order to have an idea of the economics of Jatropha processing.

Actually Tinytech had concentrated on mass production to keep the cost low and has this approach up to date I understand. The disadvantage of this otherwise very positive approach is that the machine design needs to be kept constant as much as possible and modifiactions necessary to process other seeds than peanut are avoided. 

We had made a significant effort to find a screw and cage design for the SOE 60 (Sundhara/Sayari) which will give both high extraction efficiency combined with a low energy requirement. We found that the screw design all Indian manufacturers use, does not expell Jatropha efficiently and has a comparatively high energy requirement. We came up with a more efficient screw/cage design but Tinytech did not want to adopt it as they where happy with the performance of their screw for their main market - peanut seed processing and as the manufacturing of the old screw was well organised and optimised.

Later in the development process  the design of the SOE was further optimised for the specific requirements of the Jatropha program in Mali.

Chinese expellers:

we had evaluated the Chinese models as well and found the following:

The expeller has a gear box which is difficult to replace once it fails.

The screw is hardened and thus made from high carbon steel. Once it is worn, and it will be worn, it cannot be rebuild by welding because of the high carbon content. We decided to make the screw from mild steel and hardface the surfaces subject to wear. so a local technician with basic welding skills can rebuild the screw.

The screw is a "single stage" arrangement which is known for low extaction efficiency.
The cage is made up of rings which are not possible to be rebuilt when worn. If wear starts the through put drops sharply.
The entire concept of this expeller relies on relplacing worn screw and cage parts by new parts from China which proved to be expensive and very difficult.

In the SOE (Sundhara/Sayari) design we made it a point that all wearing parts can be reconditioned locally, and not depent on expensive imports from overseas.

Caution: the economics of the expeller depend on the long run mainly on the reconditioning cost of worn screw and cage parts and on the energy needed to drive the machine. The initial investment cost counts much less than felt. In this sense a cheap machine can be very expensive.

Introducing a motorised expeller in Madagaskar:

In February 2006 I had proposed  a procedure which I would still find the best approach regarding the technology transfer.

Since then, triggered by the ever rising fuel prices, various governments have started Jatropha projects. We get more and more requests for technology transfer of the SOE 60 technology (Sundhara/Sayari). I am just back from a consultation with experts from the Philippines and Indonesia. In these talks  the idea was born not to just concentrate on the expeller alone but consider the entire system of after harvest processing jatropha seed. The result is the "Plant Oil Generating Unit (PGU)" which is a unit  operated by the community and combining oilexpeller, diesel engine running with raw plant oil and an electric generator for village electrification. It appears that this unit would have a high acceptance  in the communities as it is not only an expeller but uses the necessary diesel engine in a multiple form.

At this moment we are working on programs implementing this idea and its technology transfer in Tanzania, the Phillippines and in Indonesia. The government of the latter two countries have started a vigorous program on Jatropha BiodieseI recently and are pushing hard to introduce the PGU quickly.

Some remarks on Jatropha planting in Minas  Gerais, Brazil
 

The activities of research of the Jatropha Curcas in João Pinheiro (MG) initiated in year of 2004. In the following year (dez/2005) 13 hectares of the culture had been planted

The used espaçament was of 3 x the 2 (1667 plantas/hectare) used seeds is proceeding from the region North and Valley of the Jequitinhonha (Minas Gerais) harvested of plants with more than 5 years of age.

The used fertilization of plantation was 4-l4-08 in the base of 200 gramas/planta.

After the ground analysis, was proven the necessity of correction with 2 tons of calcareo p/ha.

Experiments of size of hollows, fertilization with superphosphate had been diverse facts, without superphosphate + manure , and others, looking for to follow the experience of the EPAMIG  (See link:  http://www.epamig.br/informativos/pinhaomanso.pdf )

The plants have been producing of propilepopileno bags  size 20 x  10cm,  . and with two months planted on farming.,

Also was used the production of plants em trays of polipropileno 128 cells , these plants have been on the field with 25 days.

The month of December that's a epoch of much rains em Minas Gerais State and was not necessary irrigating from the plants

After 90 days in the field, the plants had started to the flowers and in June already 150 grams were harvested/seeds/plant

To open / download the report (pdf-file, 2 pages, 1 page Portugueses, 1 page English, 14 kB), click here

Characterisation of a biodiesel from an alkali transesterification
of Jatropha curcas oil

S. Traoré, Polytechnic Institute, Department of Chemical Engineering; University of Conakry; Conakry; Guinea; e-mail: straoregn@yahoo.com, M. Thiam, Department of Agriculture , Prefecture of Dinguiraye, Guinea

Introduction

Guinea  imports the totality of oil and deriveted products to cover its increasing eergy needs. In contrast to other underground resources as iron , aluminium, gold , the  geological surveys have still established the existence of  crude oil  or natural gas on the territory. The increasing consumption of fossil fuel and petroleum products are a matter of concern for the country as it is related to huge outgo of foreign exchange in the context of severe economic crisis and depression. The energy trend offers a challenge as well as an opportunity to look for substitutes of fossil fuels for both economic and environmental benefits. Investigation and development of bio-fuels as an alternative and renewable source of energy for transportation has become a major target in the effort towards energy self-reliance. Bio-fuel commands crucial advantages such as technical feasibility of blending, superiority from the environment and emission reduction angle, its capacity to provide energy security to remote and rural areas and employment generation. Moreover, Bio fuel will also provide rich bio mass and nutrients to the soil and check degradation of land. In Guinea the use of crude jatropha oil is known since centuries. After Carrière (1) a report exists since 1906 on the use of the oil as biofuel for household in the country.

The reknown german website “ Bagani ” on jatropha oil technology is a manden (bambara, maninka, dioula, sénoufo, soussou, etc.) word. It comes from “ baga “ or “ baa ” meaning poison and any toxic product. The suffix “ ni “ is a dimunitive meaning small. This appelation  of the plant is due to the fact that it is not browse by cattle. Jatropha curcas is a quick maturing plant species that starts bearing fruits within a year of its planting and following the extraction and trans-esterification the oil can be blended with petroleum diesel for use. It grows in a wide variety of agro-climatic conditions of Guinea .

A key problem associated with the use of pure vegetable oils as fuels for diesel engines is caused by high fuel viscosity in compression ignition. Amongst the techniques applied to overcome the difficulties encountered with the high fuel viscosity, chemical conversion of the oil to its corresponding fatty ester is the most promising solution. Transesterification means taking a triglyceride molecule or a complex fatty acid, neutralizing the free fatty acids, removing the glycerin and creating an alcohol ester. In this work we mixed ethanol with sodium hydroxide to make sodium ethoxide. This liquid is then mixed into vegetable oil. The poperties of the resulting biodiesel are compared to ASTM and EN diesel and biodiesel  standards.

To open / download the report (pdf-file, 5 pages, 31 kB), click here

Jatropha sub-sector evolution in Tanzania

by L. Manyanga, Kakute Ltd., Arusha, Tanzania (kakute (at) tz2000.com

Jatropha curcas originates from Central America. From the Caribbean, Jatropha curcas was probably distributed by Portuguese seafarers via the Cape Verde Islands and former Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea Bissau) to other countries in Africa and Asia. Today it is cultivated in almost all tropical and subtropical countries as protection hedges around homesteads, gardens and fields

In Tanzania, Jatropha has been used as living fence for many years by agro-pastoralists especially the Maasai in the semi arid areas of north-eastern Tanzania. It was not used otherwise until 2000 when McKnight Foundation through HPI gave funds to develop the subsector in order to promote rural marginalised women in Arusha and Manyara regions. KAKUTE was then commissioned by HPI to be implementing agency of the project.

To open / download the report (pdf-file, 4 pages, 62 kB), click here

Production of biodiesel from Jatropha curcas oil by using a pilot biodiesel plant, by D.RAMESH, A.SAMAPATHRAJAN, P.VENKATACHALAM, Agrl. Engg. College & Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

Pilot biodiesel plant

Today’s diesel engines require a clean burning, stable fuel that performs well under the variety of operating conditions. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that can be used directly in any existing unmodified diesel engine. Because it has similar properties to diesel fuel, biodiesel can be blended at any ratio with diesel fuel. In most of the developed countries, biodiesel is produced from soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, peanut, etc., which are essentially edible in Indian context. Among the various vegetable oil sources, non-edible oils are suitable for biodiesel production. Because edible oils are already in demand and too expensive than diesel fuel. Among the non-edible oil sources, ^{Jatropha curcas is identified as potential biodiesel source and comparing with other sources, which has added advantages as rapid growth, higher seed productivity, suitable for tropical and subtropical regions of the world.}

To open / download the report (pdf-file, 6 pages, 250 kB), click here

“The Jatropha System”, Integrated Rural Development by Utilisation of Jatropha curcas L. (JCL) as Raw Material and as Renewable Energy, by Reinhard K. Henning

This paper contains only some information concerning “the Jatropha System”, just to understand its potential to contribute to rural development by its utilization. A lot of information can be found on the Jatropha website for downloading: www.jatropha.org. 

The economic evaluation of the Jatropha activities in Tanzania are based on real data. In other countries the Jatropha activities also show positive economic results, as far as soap making is concerned. The economic use of Jatropha oil as fuel (direct or as biodiesel) depends very much on the level of rural labour costs, as well as on the price of diesel fuel, which is often substantially subsidized. 

This paper contains also some ideas on the strategy to disseminate "The Jatropha System".

To open / download the report (pdf-file, 10 pages, 160 kB), click here

Biofuel for Sustainable Development and Poverty Alleviation in Rural Cambodia, by Andrew Williamson

Project Summary:

This project will establish anew enterprise that is based on producing biofuel from the seeds of a common plant species in Cambodia that has no other commercial use. This industry will provide a new source of income to village householders, especially women, who can easily collect andsell the seeds growing around their properties. An entrepreneur will extract the oil with a locally made low cost press.

The biofuel will be sold to substitute for diesel fuel in local businesses that provide electricity services, battery charging or water pumping. The use of a cheaper, 100 % renewable, and 100 % locally made fuel will provide economic and environmental benefits to the local community. The "seed cake" residue will be sold as high-grade organic fertilizer.

To download the report (pdf-file, 6 pages, 790 kB), click here