Jatropha a Viable Alternative Renewable Resource

Constantly the biodiesel industry is looking for some option to produce renewable energy. Biodiesel prepared from canola, sunflower and jatropha can replace or be combined with standard diesel. During first half of 2000’s jatropha biofuel made the headings as a really popular 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 arid areas. The plant grows really quickly and it can yield seeds for about 50 years. The oil received from its seeds can be utilized as a biofuel. This can be blended with petroleum diesel. Previously it has been used twice with algae mix to sustain test flight of airlines.

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

Jatropha biodiesel as Renewable Energy Investment has drawn in the interest of many business, which have tested it for vehicle usage. Jatropha biodiesel has been road evaluated by Mercedes and three of the cars and trucks have covered 18,600 miles by using the jatropha plant biodiesel.

Since it is because of some disadvantages, the jatropha biodiesel have actually not thought about as a fantastic renewable resource. The greatest issue is that nobody knows that what exactly the productivity rate of the plant is. Secondly they do not know how big scale growing might affect the soil quality and the environment as a whole. The jatropha plant needs five times more water per energy than corn and sugarcane. This raises another problem. On the other hand it is to be kept in mind 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 requires appropriate watering in the first year of its plantation which lasts for decades.

Recent study states 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 may be proportional to the quality of the soil. In such a case it might require high quality of land and might require the same quagmire that is faced by a lot of biofuel types.

Jatropha has one main disadvantage. The seeds and leaves of jatropha are hazardous to human beings and animals. This made the Australian federal government to prohibit the plant in 2006. The government stated the plant as invasive types, and too risky for western Australian farming and the environment here (DAFWQ 2006).

While jatropha has promoting budding, there are number of research difficulties remain. The value of cleansing needs to be studied since of the toxicity of the plant. Along side a methodical study of the oil yield have actually to be undertaken, this is very crucial since of high yield of jatropha would probably required before jatropha can be contributed significantly to the world. Lastly it is also very essential to study about the jatropha species that can endure in more temperature level environment, as jatropha is quite restricted in the tropical climates.