Jatropha Seeds

Jatropha seeds contain a very high percentage of oil that is well suited for use in biodiesel. As for whether it will eventually replace petrol, that will depend on vehicle manufacturer's making the switch from petrol-driven engines to biodiesel engines. This inturn will depend upon consumer demand.

Biodiesel will work in all diesel engines, the only potential problems come from in compatible rubber fuel lines & o-rings Here's Biodiesel info if anyone would like to learn more.

We keep talling 'environmental' talk but the ideas appear ever more scary to me. OK planting things is a very good idea to mop up CO2.

It highlights the question once again though: "How much do 'we' care about people in poor parts of the world". Are 'they' to continue starving so that 'we' can engorge ourselves on fossil fuel replacements????

And lets think about the loss of cultivateable lands near the equator and what that is taking out of the equation in the earths ability to fix carbon.

There is a lot of farm land in the US vacant because the farmers could not make ends meet with the prices offered for their goods. The increased demand will return these lands to production. I only wished it had come before the farmers lost their farms.

I agree, my heart goes out to UK farmers in the same way and I am seriously trying to alter my shopping habits to keep away from cheap food and food that has travelled.

None of that alters the imbalance in the world economy that leaves land under utilised in some areas while in others people go hungry.

The land may be there for rich countries to cultivate for their large (and yes I'm to blame) energy consumtion, but there will be a cost in terms of load on the environment and surely it should be seen as secondary to the food needs of other people.

"How much do 'we' care about people in poor parts of the world". Are 'they' to continue starving so that 'we' can engorge ourselves on fossil fuel replacements????

Huh?

How do you make the connection between First World oil use and Third World starvation? It seems to me that, since most oil is in the Third World, higher oil consumption pumps more money into those economies, helping to lift the overall quality of living. If the governments in those countries do not use the oil windfall to help the poor, the blame lies there, not with the end consummers.

Bill Morrow

Go to http://jatropha.de, there is lots of info on Jatropha here. I have some personal knowledge and interest because my family foundation is funding some research and development work in this area. You may be interested to know there are few other seeds (mostly non edible) that are suitable for biofuels. Pongemia is one of those. Most of these trees are sturdy and suitable for arid tropical areas.

Kris

That would be very interesting as the trees will grow where cereal grains won't. Beats starving people to drive a gas guzzler.

I think we'll find that the politics of biofuels will drive the solution. The US is making ethanol out of grain but stopping the import of Brasilian sugar which would be a far more efficient starting point for ethanol production. In the process the price of corn is going up. And while the politicians prattle on about helping the small farmers most of those have gone bust. They are really just handing cash to ADM.

It's quite easy to be cynical about biofuels in the US. Hope the Germans have a better grip on things.

Starving people to drive a gas guzzler? Sheesh! Where does this kind of thinking come from? I don't drive a "gas guzzler" and don't want to, but driving a big automobile doesn't starve anyone. Gratuitous accusations like that are uncalled for.

Wealth is not a commodity in limited supply. It is created by the talented labor of people.

Bill Morrow

Bill, I believe that the logic was that earning mere stipends by producing food for local subsistence, in the third world, or producing large commodity crops for cash for export/biodiesel, the highest return will be for cash crops, driving evensubsistence foods out of reach of the most impoverished. This is because real estate always is valued at its "highest and best use" which invariably means "Generates most cash."

kind of an agricultural twist on "Bad money drives good out of circulation."

I think that was the thinking behind that comment.

milo

That's it.

My remarks lately have been getting more critical of the way the world works today and it's amazed me how terribly threatened some feel. My part in the, as I see it, decline of the Earth's health is as big as the next persons. I would like to do something to correct it but I can see a big problem in carrying others if we can't collectively admit we're doing anything wrong.

Milo-

Thanks for the explanation. I can see your point. For years I thought the Brazilian ethanol model was an ideal solution to problems related to petroleum consumption. Recently, however, I have realized the monumental environmental price as vast tracts of rain forest have been sacrificed for sugar cane plantations. There just isn't an easy solution.

Bill Morrow

Yay Team.

Milo

It is highly unlikely that bio fuels will replace fossile fuels , as far as transportation is concern other alternative techs can replace fossile fuel run vehicles like hybrids , electric, compressed air , solar , fuel cell , so . Jatropha , corn , sugarcane , or likes cultivation alone cannot sustain world demand for oil alone if fossile fuel go extinct , we have to balance food chain with respect to other parts of ecology , just blending ethanol with petrol can slow down the fossile fuel depletion , still in most of countries practice of blending with vegetable oils is not acceptable or allowed , also we need huge infrasructure to process the fermentation , also all engines won`t support these fuels already running around . We can saggregate the applications to industries and power generation for bio fuels , and let some other potential technology to take over fossil fuel run automobiles

Hi there,

There are so much hype lately about jatropha seeds, but one thing I can share about this issue, is that all this thing is a big hoax, for up to now, there is still not any single refinery of jatropha being built or constructed in this world.

They are all still on experimental stage, unlike corn, tapioca, sugarcane, coconut , palm tree and others, they are already proven, but with jatropha, it is just purely speculation, though I am not discounting the possibility of one day, a successful invention could be discovered on how to perfectly extract the oil of jatropha for biodiesel usage, but for now, your concern of jatropah taking over petrols is still a myth.