With growing concern about the use of food crops as a fuel source; the Central American Jatropha tree is looking pretty attractive. The tree produces seeds that are as much as 40% oil that can used as biodiesel. In addition, the remainder of the seeds can be used for biomass.
According this article published by Reuters, U.K.-based D1 Oils Plc has teamed up with BP to plant jatropha trees with an increased yield of 60% when the trees are fully grown in 6 years. By all estimates they will be making money on the resulting oil if crude oil stays at least $60 a barrel. Given that it is currently at $95 dollars a barrel, this shouldn’t be a problem at all.
The plant grows in barren land and needs little water. The company will be planting in southern Africa, India, and Southeast Asia; covering 50,000 hectares.
Check out this previous post about Jatropha in Mali, and this post about how Jatropha can grow even in the desert with almost no watering or care at all.
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still long way to go …… to get economical biofuel
be careful ….. wait for some more time …to see the reality