The jatropha bush seems an unlikely prize in the hunt for alternative energy,
being an ugly, fast-growing and poisonous weed. Hitherto, its use to
humanity has principally been as a remedy for constipation. Very soon,
however, it may be powering your car.
Almost overnight, the unloved Jatropha curcushas become an agricultural and
economic celebrity, with the discovery that it may be the ideal biofuel
crop, an alternative to fossil fuels for a world dangerously dependent on
oil supplies and deeply alarmed by the effects of global warming.
The hardy jatropha, resilient to pests and resistant to drought, produces
seeds with up to 40 per cent oil content. When the seeds are crushed, the
resulting jatropha oil can be burnt in a standard diesel car, while the
residue can also be processed into biomass to power electricity plants.
As the search for alternative energy sources gathers pace and urgency, the
jatropha has provoked something like a gold rush. Last week BP announced
that it was investing almost £32 million in a jatropha joint venture with
the British biofuels company D1 Oils.
Even Bob Geldof has stamped his cachet on jatropha, by becoming a special
adviser to Helius Energy, a British company developing the use of jatropha
as an alternative to fossil fuels. Lex Worrall, its chief executive, says:
“Every hectare can produce 2.7 tonnes of oil and about 4 tonnes of biomass.
Every 8,000 hectares of the plant can run a 1.5 megawatt station, enough to
power 2,500 homes.”
Jatropha grows in tropical and subtropical climates. Whereas other feed-stocks
for biofuel, such as palm oil, rape seed oil or corn for ethanol, require
reasonable soils on which other crops might be grown, jatropha is a tough
survivor prepared to put down roots almost anywhere.
Scientists say that it can grow in the poorest wasteland, generating topsoil
and helping to stall erosion, but also absorbing carbon dioxide as it grows,
thus making it carbon-neutral even when burnt. A jatropha bush can live for
up to 50 years, producing oil in its second year of growth, and survive up
to three years of consecutive drought.
In India about 11 million hectares have been identified as potential land on
which to grow jatropha. The first jatropha-fuelled power station is expected
to begin supplying electricity in Swaziland in three years. Meanwhile,
companies from Europe and India have begun buying up land in Africa as
potential jatropha plantations.
Jatropha plantations have been laid out on either side of the railway between
Bombay and Delhi, and the train is said to run on more than 15 per cent
biofuel. Backers say that the plant can produce four times more fuel per
hectare than soya, and ten times more than corn. “Those who are working with
jatropha,” Sanju Khan, a site manager for D1 Oils, told the BBC, “are
working with the new generation crop, developing a crop from a wild plant —
which is hugely exciting.”
Jatropha, a native of Central America, was brought to Europe by Portuguese
explorers in the 16th century and has since spread worldwide, even though,
until recently, it had few uses: malaria treatment, a windbreak for animals,
live fencing and candle-mak-ing. An ingredient in folk remedies around the
world, it earned the nickname “physic nut”, but its sap is a skin irritant,
and ingesting three untreated seeds can kill a person.
Jatropha has also found a strong supporter in Sir Nicholas Stern, the
government economist who emphasised the dangers of global warming in a
report this year. He recently advised South Africa to “look for biofuel
technologies that can be grown on marginal land, perhaps jatropha”.
However, some fear that in areas dependent on subsistence farming it could
force out food crops, increasing the risk of famine.
Some countries are also cautious for other reasons: last year Western
Australia banned the plant as invasive and highly toxic to people and
animals.
Yet a combination of economic, climatic and political factors have made the
search for a more effective biofuel a priority among energy companies. New
regulations in Britain require that biofuels comprise 5 per cent of the
transport fuel mix by 2010, and the EU has mandated that by 2020 all cars
must run on 20 per cent biodiesel. Biodiesel reduces carbon dioxide
emissions by nearly 80 per cent compared with petroleum diesel, according to
the US Energy Department.
Under the deal between BP and D1, £80 million will be invested in jatropha
over the next five years, with plantations in India, southern Africa and
SouthEast Asia. There are no exact figures for the amount of land already
under jatropha cultivation, but the area is expanding fast. China is planning
an 80,000-acre plantation in Sichuan, and the BPD1 team hopes to have a
million hectares under cultivation over the next four years.
Jatropha has long been prized for its medicinal qualities. Now it might just
help to cure the planet.
- D1 Oils, the UK company leading the jatropha revolution, is growing 430,000
acres of the plant to feed its biodiesel operation on Teesside — 44,000
acres more than three months ago, after a huge planting programme in India.
It has also planted two 1,235-acre trial sites this year in West Java,
Indonesia. If successful, these will become a 25,000-acre plantation.
Elloitt Mannis, the chief executive, says that the aim is to develop energy
“from the earth to the engine”.
Jatropha: costs and benefits
- Jatropha needs at least 600mm (23in) of rain a year to thrive. However, it
can survive three consecutive years of drought by dropping its leaves
- It is excellent at preventing soil erosion, and the leaves that it drops act
as soil-enriching mulch
- The plant prefers alkaline soils
- The cost of 1,000 jatropha saplings (enough for one acre) in Pakistan is
about £50, or 5p each
- The cost of 1kg of jatropha seeds in India is the equivalent of about 7p.
Each jatropha seedling should be given an area two metres square.
- 20 per cent of seedlings planted will not survive
- Jatropha seedlings yield seeds in the first year after plantation
Makes me think of KUDZU! Kudzu was brought in as the Southeastern United States' "miracle plant" to prevent soil erosion & provide food for cattle. In 1953 it was named as a "pest weed" by the USDA; just 77 yrs after introduction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu SEE INVASIVE SPECIES section.
Julie, North Carolina, United States
I think the key characteristic of this plant is that it can be planted with other cash crops and does not compete with them. This may be a quick replacement for corn as a biofuel. With the recent
information stating the true cost of producing one barrel of ethanol shown to be three bbls of oil....
Richard Sandoval, Ft. Lauderdale,Fl, USA
I think that the purpose behind this article was to suggest that this plant might provide fuel in developing countries. No way it could provide ALL fuel for EVERY human. However, because it can grow with very little irrigation and on basically spoil, it is attractive to certain parts of the world. Even still, perhaps some US farmers would plant a few acres to power their tractors, vehicles, and homes. We spend so much time trying to reduce our carbon footprint, wouldn't this at least make us more carbon neutral?
Dan, Central, Florida
Several years ago, we in India had one, Mr Ramar Pillai, who discovered that he could produce oil from a few leaves (also endorsed by our National Body - Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, India and later re-tracted by them, probably under political pressure)
This was probably Jathropa Oil. If indeed Jathropa Oil is green gold, several economies of the world will go bust.
We may therefore not see the light of the day for Jathropa oil as a cheap bio-fuel on a very large viable scale. At best, this may progress at the R & D stage
Muralidharan, New Bombay, India
We have been growing this jatropha for 15 years or so AND EATING THE SEEDS. A fellow at the local flea market sold it to me as "Florida pistachio." Being a sceptical Herbalist, when seeds were produced, I saved up a cup for myself to eat when feeling invincible or suisidal... When the moment arrived the seeds were gone, eaten in total by my small son. They didn't kill him. He is now 22 years old 6' 3" weighing in at abbout 245lbs. So is there a less toxic species thet looks exactly the same???
El McKane of Harmony Healing Nursery, FL USA
El McKane, Ft. Myers, FL, USA
If indeed this is gospel truth, then 90% 0f land in Kenya is crying and thirsting for this poisonous green gold. May somebody out there hear the cry and provide the details on jatropha
Mike Kittivo, NAIROBI, KENYA
I do realize that some of the jatropha excitement is just hype as seen in the marvelous statement about the plants absorbing CO2!!!
Anyway, I still like the idea of it's use. It just ain't gonna be a huge thing. The hectares to home power ratio was just a figure. The real use would likely be as a fuel blend, like in Germany with rapeseed, or for small scale generators in local areas. I think its an intermediary more than a solution.
Real solutions for long term: solar, wind, and nuclear for large scale inc. homes; electric (from the previous sources), fuel cells, and biological fuel cells (no joke, just not even close to ready) for the small scale and autos. Methane from livestock (solid wastes) is also viable for small scale (aka localized) use.
btw... ethanol is fail as a fuel
Chris, State College, PA, USA
Jatropha makes sense if cultivated on marginal land in Africa.
Desertification claims about 2 milion hectares of land per year in sub-sahara Africa. Planting Jatropha halts this process creates jobs and bioenergy.Jatropha should be planted also on deforested land. Forests should never be cleared to plant Jatropha. Jatropha plantations also absorbs carbon dioxide and helps reverse global warming. There is little or no downside to jatropha if the projects are correctly implemented.
Rick Rienstra, Copenhagen, Denmark
In Burma,citizens are required to plant Jatropha in their back yards by military dictators.
Ashin Thuwiya, kyet pyay/pyinmana, Burma
I don't know which is more insane, people making any alternative energy project out to be a panacea or people making blanket statements about all alternative energy schemes having been proven unworkable now and forever, amen.
Studies that are critical and supportive of biofuels have many assumptions and flaws so why not let more than one source have a look at the numbers and the assumptions behind them before closing the case. The market and political climate is not going to let an energy source that can not provide more energy than its production requires stay under the protection of government subsidies forever and no energy source that drives agriculture and wilderness off of the planet is going to be pursued - Investors and corporate CEOs are not all as stupid as you imagine them to be.
Saul Wall, Moncton, Canada
folks your not getting the whole picture.16000 acres is only for the waste biomass electricity production the oil is the main product of this scheme.and it can be done on marginal land.Poor nations with millions of acres of this type of land will suddenly become oil exporters and energy independent.
adrian smits, beaumont, canada
hi...i would like to ask, can jatropha use in biomass field..in pyrolysis process to produce methane???how??
sabrina, kuala lumpur, malaysia
I wonder if the jatropha plant could replace tobacco in North America. Would it thrive in the same environment? If so, we could transfer those crops and eliminate the worry about tobacco growers and also small farmers. The government gives subsidies anyway; to initially pay for the replanting would pay for itself, plus then we could be self-sufficient as a nation and not have to cowtow to other countries. The tobacco companies can lay their stock in Jatropha instead and we can rid ourselves of smoking and secure our nation's future and have a better stance in the middle eastern countries. Idealistic, but I think it could work. And if we are headed for another world war, having our own food, power supply and fuels for the military will be very very beneficial.
Christa Johnson, Van Nuys, CA
According to the article, just 3 beans can kill someone, and the sap is an irritant to the skin. Now BP want to grow millions of acres of the stuff so that Osama's fanatics can stop fooling around trying to make bombs and ricin, and just go to unsuspecting Africa and get all the killing power they need. This is a recipe for an unlivable world.
Graeme, Reading,
"Do we really have to waste time blathering on about all these ridiculously impractical and environmentally destructive 'green' alternatives such as bio-fuels and wind-power?"
No, because bio-fuels aren't green. They have not been invented by environmentalists. They are an alternative to fossil fuels, because they're running out. It's got nothing to do with the environment. This is all to do with people wanting to keep running their cars and nothing to do with environmentalists. So you can't pin this one on them, sorry.
starling, Lancaster,
Can it reduce floods?
Graeme, Reading,
the west has been reducing its oil consumption significantly since the 1970s, and continues to do so. Jimd, Norwich, UK
I'm not sure where Jimd, Norwich, UK is getting his information, but America is increasing its oil consumption every year and the last time I looked, America was certainly west of Jimd, Norwich, UK .
alex, Toronto, Canada
Do we really have to waste time blathering on about all these ridiculously impractical and environmentally destructive 'green' alternatives such as bio-fuels and wind-power? None of them has less environmental impact than traditional fossil fuels, and most of them are far worse over their life cycle. They are not efficient enough to supply our current needs, let alone our projected needs. There's only one current technology that can: nuclear. Anyone who is halfway numerate knows this. The 'earth-friendly' granola options are just political theatre to allow governments to show they tried every alternative before reluctantly accepting the inevitable. There are only two other alternatives: world population reduction, or some magic new technology not yet invented.
ScottQ, Boise, USA / Idaho
This is what I like to read about because it is so positive. Yes, we may be suffering from the dreadful effects of global warning and pollution, but we are not helpless and we can turn things around if we put our minds to it as this article shows.
There are so many forms of alternative energy - we can use all of these and promote them to their maximum potential. The energy companies ; governments across the world and even ordinary individuals (purchasing power) can do so much to change what is happening to our planet.
Kim Domick, Torquay,
"Nuclear....the only solution. Face up to it!"
Take off the blinkers. Nobody says this is the ONLY solution. We need a combination of solutions, not one stupid one. Yes, stupid. I live next to Heysham, I know that nuclear waste doesn't just come in neat little glass pellets.
starling, Lancaster,
Has anyone done a study on how the burning of jatropha will effect humans? It is highly toxic after all. It seems to be a better solution than fossil fuels to our ever increasing need. But will we be opening yet another Pandora's Box? More alternatives we find, the better. But we cannot be too hasty on jumping on the bandwagon of every possible solution found until we know exactly what impact it has.
John LoGiudice, Stony Brook, New York, USA
I would imagine there is only one plant Geldof is fit to be a special advisor on and it isn't Japtropha.
Paul, Rochester, UK
"But also absorbing carbon dioxide as it grows" a statement made as though it were newsworthy.... Hello!.... all plants "absorb" CO2, it is called photosynthesis... and is part of the _Carbon Cycle_
David Chorley, Tulsa, oklahoma USA
What is the energy released per liter for this world saving plant? Is it as good/bad as the ethanol we get from corn?
Armand VAnore, Marshalltown, Iowa US
You can't have a toxic plant in large scale unsupervised. This will lead to other problems in large scale. Problems may have to be faced by individuals or domestic cattle. Watch out buddies. No excuse for conveniently negligent about its dangers. Simply looking at the economics is not good. If it is a weed then it will multiply. There must be some way of controlling this crop. Strong controlling measures should be in place. Otherwise it will multiply and people may face food shortages.
Ravi Shankar, Hyderabad/India, India
It is amazing how urban folk have little idea how much land there is in the world. Also that land can have multi use. It can be used for biomass,and oils such as with Jatropha, and at he same time for recreational , solar, windmills etc. There is no shortage of land, only of imagination for its improvement and use. Roadsides alone could make a dent in energy need.
Ron Wagner
Decatur, Illinois
Corn "maize" country.
Ron Wagner, Decatur, Illinois USA
The most recent price for oil is $US 77 per barrel. What is the cost of japhrota oil? $US 100 per barrel -- ???
Sudha Shenoy, Birmingham Gardens NSW, Australia
It surprises me they even bothered mentioning that it'd take 8000 hectares to run a 1.5 megawatt biomass station. One large wind turbine with have the same output over the year (well, slightly lower). To produce the equivelent of Sizewell B's reactor you'd need about 6 million hectares. I know which I'd rather.
Obviously I understand it produces the oil for transport fuel as well, but to turn vast areas into this "crop" could be intensly damaging and I'm sure there are more sustainable ways that may not have the same impact on food prices and the natural environment.
I class myself as an environmentalist, but I can see no way forward other than to concentrate renewable power into generating electricity (wind turbines, waves) and the use of nuclear plants that may provide a surplus for the very long awaited electric car, if the battery technology ever makes it. Micro-scale generation has to play its part.
This, I can't support this. It just feels wrong.
David, Reading,
8000 hectares to power 2500 homes? Assuming every home needs about the same amount of energy, that would mean earth, with 15 billion hectares of land surface area would need to be covered with a bit less than 8 billion hectares of jatropha bush. To put this in perspective, there are about 300 million hectares of irrigated farmland in the world. Obviously, this is a non-workable solution. Improve its efficiency 10-fold (doubtful it could be more than doubled), and then MAYBE we could use it.
Jonas, San Luis Obispo, California, US
Have I missed something? But how do you harvest the stuff?
The key factors with Rapeseed, Wheat, and Maize is that they use standard combine harvesters that farmers already have, and thus keep capital expenditure at a minimum.
Farming is about profit!
David Vinter, Louth, Lincs., UK.
For plants to grow, they pull nutrients from the soil. If the plants are eaten, those nutrients eventually return to the soil as fertilizer and can be reused. If the plants are burned, those nutrients are destroyed and our soil will become permanently depleted over time. Producing biofuels on a global scale seems like a recipe for global disaster through permanently leaching productivity from soils around the world. Have I missed something? Aren't biofuels in principal disastrous, no matter how efficiently the underlying crop can be converted to fuel?
Gregg, Reston, VA, USA
Seems great at face value, but anything cultivated at that level will need strict control. Truth is don't cut down the rain forests, give them money not to. Safe (as possible) nuclear is the only power answer. Oh and contraception if we really want to survive!!
David, Colchester,
Despite appearances the west has been reducing its oil consumption significantly since the 1970s, and continues to do so. The plant could allow the so called developing nations to develop in a similar fashion to the older western industrialised economies without causing the negative effects of the oil based industral era. A win win for everyone?
Jimd, Norwich, UK
Amazing how a scruffy bloke who always looked like an unmade bed, and hated Mondays, can use naughty words at political conferences with his pal St. Bono, suddenly become an expert in horticulture.!
I'll say one thing there's going to be a big profit for somebody. All they need to do now is to find something useful for eggshells.
Phil de Buquet, Newport, England
If you do a little math you will see certain problems with this plan. They say it takes 8000 hectares to produce enough material for a 1.5 MWe electric plant. Well a small size electric plant would actually be a 300 MWe unit and scaling that up you will see that you would have to plant a 30mile by 30 mile block of these plants to supply one small electric power station. Seems to be a lot less attractive when you honestly state how much land is needed.
agesilaus, Florida, USA
Why on earth do you quote Bob Geldof as an authority? As a very good sales tool for a company, maybe, as an expert on alternative fuels, hardly!
Joe, brussels, belgium
Oh yeah, lets cut down more trees to plant crops for burning in our cars! Great idea. (Not). However on a plus note, its good to see large international companies still exploiting African lands, nothing has changed there then.
chris, essex, uk
Despite appearances the west has been reducing its oil consumption significantly since the 1970s, and continues to do so. The plant could allow the so called developing nations to develop in a similar fashion to the older western industrialised economies without causing the negative effects of the oil based industral era. A win win for everyone?
Jimd, Norwich, UK
Farm 5.3 hectares (some 13 acres) of a product that is a skin irritant and lethal poison to produce a single kilowatt of electricity? Has anyone worked out the costs and energy involved in planting, nurturing, harvesting, and transporting the crops? This investment may show BP to be green, but it sure won't save the planet.
David, Dordogne, France
The number of occupied households in England and Wales is some 21.6m; at a rate of 800hectares to 2500 households, the UK would need 69m hectares of plant to provide 100% of its electricity. Unfortunately, England and Wales is only 15m hectares big...
Back to the drawing board, lads!
Ade, Wallasey, UK
Looked at simply this could provide good income for farmers. 2.7 tonnes of oil / ha is approx 20 barrels/ha which is $1400/ha at $70 / bbl. Corn farmers in the US would typically generate about $700/ha in income so unless the costs are very high it seems this could be an attractive alternative.
8000 ha to power 2500 homes would be daft in the UK but there are many parts of the world where that would be quite feasible.
Mark, Oxford, UK
"The cost of 1,000 jatropha saplings (enough for one acre) in Pakistan is about £50, or 5p each."
How long will THAT situation obtain ... ?
The BBC (Radio 4, 9th July) interviewed a grower on the Subcontinent who said that the cost per plant would be 50p each for 1000+ plants.
Joe Jones, London, UK
It sounds great, but you need huge areas of land to grow these plants on, and that just causes more problems. In the island of Borneo, huge areas of unprofitable rainforest are being cleared for palm-oil plantations.
Surely this will continue with biofuels, particularly in countries with cheap land-prices and labour, such as Africa, Asia and south-America. These are also some of the worlds most important nature areas, and huge areas will be converted into mono-cultures.
Unless they find a biofuel that grows in deserts or open oceans, I hope they don't catch on.
Nick, Ireland,
Approx 53 times the area of Britain to power all homes in Britain, possibly ok on a small scale but not the answerall.
Nuclear....the only solution. Face up to it!
Frank, Ayr, Scotland
I agree with Ian. Think of all the land that will need to be displaced to grow this crop and all for a fairly paltry return; not even taking into account the energy used to plant, harvest and process the crop. We will end up with the same situation we have with palm oil crops in Malaysia - a monoculture planted on previously biologically diverse forest land. This is not an environmental solution, but a selfish way for the West to gain access to energy at the expense of the rest of the planet and the people who live there.
b Hensher, Birmingham, UK
Quite incredible that it will take 8000 hectares to provide power for soem 2400 homes when one 2 MW wind turbine can alomost acheive that as the one in Swaffham, Norfolk shows us. So what is going on here, another belated attempt by energy companies to find alternatives to Oil just in case pek oil arrives (as they know it will within 10 years) and nobbles the world economy and plunges us into potential wars over this scarce resource.
I find this sort of reporting ludicrous and a bit silly based on nothing more than what the energy companies are doing. We need more in the papers about energy and climate change, everyone ought to be getting very worried.
Pete Best, Northampton, UK
A plant to save the planet?
I can understand why Australia is so wary. They are overun with rabbits introduced for 'sport' by the colonists and the Crown of Thorns starfish is slowly eating their reefs.
G J BUNTON, SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE
Probably good news as one more source of energy. But is there a danger that news such as this allows us to just go on wasting the energy we produce. We must continue to stem the demand for all forms of energy, rather than just finding ways of producing more
Tony Wickham, New Milton, Hants, UK
If this is such an easy plant to grow and will sell for more money, then wouldn't farmers grow this instead of food? Food prices will go up and hyperinflation begins.
Laura, york,
I am unsure of what special advice "Bob" can provide. He coukd write a song I suppose
Richard Garland, Manchester, Greater Manchester
How long before the tree-huggers find something wrong with it and renew their demands that we all go back to living in caves?
Isn't the free market a wonderful thing?
mark mcfarland, dubai, uae
To cover just one acre of this earths surface with this crop to propel an ape on wheels would be
fun, to cover millions of acres would be obscene.
wayne, huntingdon, cambs
Let us hope it is neither another groundnut scheme nor a kutzu plant.
Colin, London,
Excuse me if my sums are incorrect but it seems you need about 16000 acres of land to power just 2400 homes. Surely this is a complete non starter! But it should provide a good excuse for lots more international conferences for the environmentalists and "special advisors" like Bob Geldof!
Ian, Beijing, China
This is great and may provide some oil for burning but we cannot replace our existing oil use with biofuels from plants. We would need more land than there is available to replace current oil consumption. There is also the very real danger, raised in the article, of people going hungry while we drive around on their harvests.
Janet, Melbourne, Australia