Comprehensive Jatropha Report

The Comprehensive Jatropha Report provides practical data, updates and insights about the jatropha biofuel industry. More »

A Comprehensive Cellulosic Ethanol Report

The Comprehensive Cellulosic Ethanol Report was prepared precisely to cater to this need for a clear, balanced and comprehensive guide about this important emerging business opportunity. More »


Posts Tagged ‘Jatropha’

« Older Entries

From Micro Propagation to Mass Propagation – A Jatropha Success Story

May 26th, 2011

One of the previous entries in the blog elaborated about the problems with Jatropha propagation and the need for tissue culture for ramping up Jatropha business. The persistent inconsistencies associated with macro propagation makes tissue culture a must need for Jatropha’s success.

JOil, a Singapore based company which is a joint venture between Temasek Life Sciences and Tata Chemicals have come up with remarkable success in developing over two million Jatropha tissue culture plants in different regions of the world (India, China, Philippines, Thailand, Kenya etc)

Mass production of Jatropha would get a big boost once this technology is scaled up successfully. Improvements in performance of the plant through specific breeding programs have always remained to be futile attempts. Giant companies like BP have records of abandoning attempts for Jatropha micro propagation due to uncertainties about commercial viabilities. But JOil is genuinely catalyzing a turnaround for biofuel industry. Joil is in talks with other companies such as Yoma Strategic Holdings, Europhtonic Group, Trafigura Biofuels etc to partner with them so as to improve the plantation operations.

The initial market for the Jatropha plants will be India, although JOil is also targeting the Philippines and Thailand – where it recently appointed Toyota Tsusho Corp as its sales representative, and with which it is also working to set up nurseries and tissue culture facilities there. Another target market is Kenya and Mozambique in East Africa, through partner Tata Chemicals

 

Comments Off »

Posted in Company, Jatropha

Tags:

Jatropha World Asia 2011

May 25th, 2011

Jatropha World Asia 2011

27-28 Jun, 2011 – Haikou, Hainan Island

In February, the European parliament voted for new rules that require lower emission levels from vehicles. Worldwide, governments are also following suit on a similar route to increase targets for clean energy use in their respective countries. There is a need to increase our dependence on biofuels in near term and with recent announcements of increasing supply of crude jatropha oil, Jatropha has risen up to skepticisms and misinformation, proving that it can be a sustainable feedstock option for biofuel.

The biggest question in everyone’s mind would be :-

How can Jatropha oil reach the high volume required for large-scale biofuel production?

How can Jatropha oil be produced economically?

These critical questions would be answered at the Jatropha World Asia 2011 conference centered on the theme “Delivering Jatropha Oil to the Market -Strategies to Ramp Up Production”

Various themes of discussions include:-

Successful Case Studies of large-scale Jatropha seed & oil production in Asia, Brazil & Madagascar

Strategies to optimize production output to meet increasing global demand for biodiesel and aviation biofuel

Best Practices for producers to improve Jatropha productivity

Innovations & Technologies in Breeding and Genetic Engineering

Ensuring Sustainability Standards are met and move towards international certifiable jatropha biofuel production

Global Outlook of Biofuel market: How Jatropha stacks up against other feedstocks?

Advancing Jatropha’s Position as premium feedstock for Aviation Biofuel production

For further information and registration

Comments Off »

Posted in Events, Jatropha

Tags:

Jatropha Promises 35% GHG Reduction Potential

April 21st, 2011

There have been so much uncertainties and debates about the green house emissions and environmental cost of Jatropha biodiesel. In African sub continent, there has been quite a few projects that are getting dragged and delayed due to the issues being raised about the environmental sustainability potential of Jatropha.

A recent report from Jatropha Alliance and Sun Biofuels would probably do good to silence the critics. The study highlights that EU’s goal of slashing greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 35% can be met through utilising Jatropha and that Sun Biofuels Mozambique could save 39% of GHGs compared to fossil fuels if the jatropha-derived biodiesel was produced in the UK.

An independent GHG life cycle calculation was conducted for Sun Biofuels Mozambique in order to assess the impact on Jatropha biofuels in Mozambique. The study was further validated and reviewed by researchers from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and scientists from LEI Agricultural Economic Research. Land use change, Seed yield, oil yield and nitrogen fertilizers were found to be the three major factors that influence the level of GHG saving achieved by Jatropha.

The report also highlights the potential of Jatropha biodiesel to achieve GHG savings of up to 73%. If this biodiesel is consumed locally, the value increased to 48%. Sun Biofuels Mozambique is targeting seed yield of 6 tonnes per hectare per year, further raising this to 65%. However the most influencing factor is nitrogen fertiliser. If Sun Biofuels Mozambique is able to substitute 100% of nitrogen fertilisers with organic Fertiliser, for example Jatropha seed cake, the GHG saving balance could go up to 73%.

more information available here

Comments Off »

Posted in Company, Jatropha, Research

Tags:

Jatropha’s Product Range gets Diversified..!

April 15th, 2011

We all know that there has been serious research on detoxification of Jatropha meal to yield nutrition rich cake for use as animal feed. The advent of simple inexpensive detoxification strategies has already boosted the market value of Jatropha value chain product.  The latest addition to Jatropha’s diversifying product rage, is bio based plastic / biopolymer.

Polyol esters are being produced from transesterification of Jatropha oil methyl ester (JOME) and trimethylolpropane (TMP) with an attractive conversion of over 90%. Not only could the Jatropha oil find applicability in biopolymer industry, but the high amounts of glycerol by product from Jatropha biodiesel is also increasingly being used to produce biopolymers. 1,3-propanediol is being produced from crude glycerol from Jatropha biodiesel process by Klebsiella pneumonia. The bio based 1,3-propanediol is further polymerized with terephthalic acid to yield poly trimethylene terephthalate (PTT).

The developments in biopolymer production could offer new hope and renewed interest for Jatropha entrepreneurs.  They are finding better ways to optimize cash flow and economics of Jatropha business..

More info

Polyester production from Jatropha

PDO and PTT production

Comments Off »

Posted in Economics, Jatropha, Research

Tags:

Jatropha Detoxification by Solid State Fermentation

April 9th, 2011

Improving the economics of Jatropha business lies in optimization of the cash flow, for which the production of end products with improved market value is highly essential. Presently, seeds, oil, soap and seed cake has market value but that is not enough to keep the business a highly profitable one. Using the seed cake as animal feed instead of fertilizer would improve the revenues but this has been hindered due to the anti nutritional factors present in the seed cake. With energy and protein content higher than Soya meal, one can certainly say that Jatropha qualifies to share a sizable proportion in animal feed market, only if the antinutritional factors are eliminated.  D1 oils recently came up with a patented process for co extracting proteins with oil thereby leaving behind anti nutritional factors, but that would mean a “Sweet Deal” only for that company. There hasn’t been a significant method that is available for economically eliminating anti nutritional factors from Jatropha seed cake.

Researchers at IIT Delhi, India have developed a simple Solid State Fermentation process that utilizes Pseudomonas aeruginosa to completely eliminate phorbol esters. Already there have been reports about the use of fungal species such as Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma longibrachiatum for detoxification of Jatropha, but the use of fungus has quite a few drawbacks that made the process less successful on a large scale. The process of using bacterium could offer a tangible solution to eliminate the anti nutritional factors, making the seed cake suitable for animal feed. One can expect that inexpensive detoxification technologies such as these would help in increasing the market value of Jatropha value chain products thereby improving the economics of Jatropha business.

More info on the research work carried out

 

Comments Off »

Posted in Jatropha, Research

Tags:

Solid Catalysts for Sustainable Transesterification of Jatropha Oil

April 6th, 2011

Seems transesterification is receiving attention on par with extraction process, in recent times. I just made a post (check previous entry) about the use of bronsted acid ionic liquids for ecofriendly and efficient transesterification of Jatropha oil and now there is one more post about green chemistry catalyst for Jatropha biodiesel production.  Eliminating undesirable solvent usage has been an integral part of green chemistry and the use of solid catalysts for transesterification would certainly bring about the much desired elimination of solvents. Catalysts such as Sulfated zirconia-alumina (SZA), aluminium modified heterogeneous basic oxide (Mg-Zn) and calcined- Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH) are increasingly being used as replacements for the conventional homogeneous strong base catalyst such as NaOH and KOH. The solid base catalysts are able to result in 78% biodiesel yield. The integration of nanotechnology has made things even better. Nano sized solid basic catalysts such as hydrotalcite derived basic oxides of Mg/Al have been successfully demonstrated to effect almost 95% biodiesel yield from Jatropha oil upon transesterification. These catalysts are not only eco friendly but are economical too since they could be recovered and reused for many number of times.

More info about the solid base catalyst

 

More info about the nanosized base catalyst

Link 1

 

Link 2

 

Comments Off »

Posted in Biofuel, Jatropha, Research

Tags:

“Jatropha can Deliver its High Potential as a Sustainable Biodiesel Feedstock” – BOEING

April 5th, 2011

“Sustainability..!”

Sustainability has become the most influential term in the world of Jatropha. More often than not, it has been causing headache to a Jatropha investor.

In a scenario where the whole of Africa and certain other regions of world has been echoing the fact that Jatropha is not sustainable, researchers at Yale University’s School of Environmental Studies have something different to say and to prove. The two year research funded by Boeing which used sustainability criteria developed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels to assess the Jatropha cultivation in Latin America, claims that Jatropha is indeed sustainable.

Life Cycle Assesment of Jatropha as a part of this study identified prior land use as the most important factor influencing the greenhouse gas benefits of a jatropha. This research highlights that developers should pay particular attention to prior land use when deciding where to locate jatropha projects. The study identified that failure of Jatropha projects was mainly due to lack of developed seed strains, which led to poor crop yields. Research on improving the seed quality holds the key for successful and sustainable Jatropha cultivation.

While all the previous studies that criticized Jatropha were mostly based on theoretical assumptions and inputs, this study was based on extensive interviews with Jatropha cultivators and scenario analysis of Jatropha projects. Hence it could be considered as the most comprehensive sustainability analysis made for Jatropha. The systematic study proves that the notions and conclusions from the theoretical studies of the past were all faulty. The study showed that, if cultivated properly, jatropha can deliver strong environmental and socioeconomic benefits.

The study has come as a savior for Jatropha which has been facing so much of controversies off late. It has provided invaluable to better understand the sustainability potential of Jatropha. The convincing results of the study should hopefully silence the critics

More info – Yale Universities Research Report

More info – Boeing’s Press Release

Comments Off »

Posted in Biofuel, Economics, Jatropha

Tags:

Ionic Liquid Catalyst Simplifies Jatropha Biodiesel Production

April 4th, 2011

Jatropha oil has to be subjected to various pre treatments and refining steps such as degumming, neutralization, dewaxing, bleaching & deodorizing in order to improve the efficiency of transesterification process which converts the jatropa oil to biodiesel. So many refining steps would mean that a lot of time and money has to be invested for this purpose.  The use of ionic liquids with metal chlorides as catalysts for the purpose of transesterification, could possibly cut down the long and expensive pre treatment processes and these catalysts can efficiently be used with Jatropha oils having high acid values.

1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tosylate which is a Bronsted acid ionic liquid effects a 93% transesterification and the coupling of ferric chloride (FeCl3) with the Bronsted acid ionic liquid would result in almost 99% biodiesel yield. The secret behind such impressive numbers is that the metal ions in the ionic liquid could supply Lewis acidic sites, and more of the sites could be provided by trivalent metallic ions than those of bivalent ones.

For those who consider that the use of ionic liquid catalyst won’t be economical or ecofriendly, I will have to stress upon the fact that the mixture of Bronsted acid ionic liquid and FeCl3 could be easily separated from product and reused.  There are many other ionic liquids under investigation and one can expect a few more efficient catalysts to be identified in near future.

More info

 

Comments Off »

Posted in Biofuel, Jatropha, Research

Tags:

Next Test Flight for Jatropha Biofuel

April 2nd, 2011

Mexican carrier Interjet and Airbus have conducted their jatropha-based biofuel flight in Airbus A320 aircraft on 1st of April. The biofuel is made from locally sourced jatropha, harvested in the southern state of Chiapas. According to Airbus, the aim of the demonstration flight and the project was to speed up the commercialization of aviation biofuel in Mexico. The test flight was the realization of a two year ambition for Interjet to develop a production chain for renewable biofuel, with the purpose of creating a Mexican platform for sustainable aviation bio-fuel.

Jatropha biofuel processed by Honeywell UOP, with a 30% blend was used for the test flight. Honeywell has already developed successful jet fuels from Camelina and Jatropha that could be used without the requirement of engine modification in the aircraft.

Already, Air New Zealand, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines and TAM Airlines have conducted successful test flights and this study along with those previous studies stands to prove that  Jatropha indded has the potential to reduce Green House Gas emission, especially that of CO2 by up to 80 percent over standard aviation biofuel.

 

More info

 

 

Comments Off »

Posted in Biofuel, Company, Jatropha, Research

Tags:

RSB Certification System – The Booster for Second Generation Biofuels

March 28th, 2011

We all know how powerful the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was in promoting sustainability along the entire value chain of palm oil business. Next in the line is the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuel (RSB) which is a certification system that uses risk management and lifecycle assesment approach to ensure a sustainable biofuel business.  RSB is emerging as a bench mark and the ultimate destination for regulation compliance and seeks to be recognized by global market regulators.

In a scenario where there is a lot of debates over the social, economical and environmental sustainability of emerging biofuels, the emergence of the precisely sustainable alternative fuel is getting delayed especially since most of the emerging biofuel is doing more harm than good.  Realizing this, WWF is touting the start of Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels Certification System to ensure feasible biofuel production.

The RSB certification systems definition of a sustainable biofuel is that the fuel should not impact food crops, doesn’t compete with water, doesn’t result in habitat destruction or ecosystem imbalance and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Accordingly, biofuel producers will have to show that their biofuel is responsibly produced to get them certified so that there is a possibility of tracing the origin of product along the entire supply chain, thus ensuring sustainable biofuel production.

With emergence of RSB certification, dedicated focus on second generation biofuels would increase and probably the certification might act as a catalyst for rapid commercialization of emerging biofuels. It would also play important role in fixing the socio-economic problems associated with un checked biofuel expansion, especially given the raising concerns in African countires due to uncontrolled Jatropha cultivation. 

Currently, the RSB certification system is under pilot scale evaluation and one can expect mandates arriving in near term. One can expect that i near future the RSB certificatioin will become an essential element of market recognition as leaders in biofuel business. The role of RSB in solving the problems associated with biofuel business is not yet clear. However, it is just a step towards the right direction. 

More info on RSB Certification System and Guidelines

Comments Off »

Posted in Biofuel, Cellulosic Ethanol, Jatropha

Tags:


more » Our Reports

This is another sample post

updated : Feb, 2011
# of pages: 220
Eiffel Tower

updated : Feb, 2011
# of pages: 213
 

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Get regular insights, updates and analysis of the biofuel industry and bio-based sources & products.


Sign up for a FREE subscription of our monthly digest on the following:

  Jatropha  Cellulosic Ethanol
  Emerging Biofuel Feedstock

more » Latest Posts @ Biozio Blog

Loading...
 

Glossary

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |