[Assam] Boon For Biofuels

Mon Jul 9 10:54:19 PDT 2007

Thank you, Mukulda.
  Now I can relate to Jatropha. I remember rows of Bhwt Era around nalbarir gaonor ghor. Also Nabagraha Pahar slopes used to have lots of them. Probably they are all gone now.

  I found another good article on the plant. It will be interesting to those who have been wondering why all this noise about Jatropha. There is a picture of the kind that grows in Kerala. 
  The article claims the plant lives to be fifty years old. That's not how I remember Bhwt Era shrub. Is there a difference between the kinds in Kerala and Assam?

  Dilip

  Jatropha The Rag to Riches Story of a Humble Plant !!!

  Cinderella among plants

  The story of a plant so far left uncared, un-attended and considered a menace has raised to the status of Cinderella- the poor house maid who happened to be the bride of the ruling prince! Jatropha (also known as physic-nut tree) is a shrub that used to grow every where required no manures, not to be watered; even pests left it uncared so it was not affected by any diseases. Being a vagabond in plant kingdom, people just let it grow on the hedges and the poor tree got the duty as a hedge-row plant. It bore seeds so far no one cared, who bothered of a useless seed of a waste land plant.

  New suitors

  All that has changed, the complete scenario has changed now this Cinderella is a princess with many suitors. Multinationals stand on knee before her for the magnificent fruits she bears. Jatropha fruits (looks like a grape- fruit four times its weight), each fruit contains three seeds about the size of a plum. These seeds contain about 35% oil that can be dehydrated can be used as bio-diesel, there is the point, this time of fuel crisis (not just shortage but being used as a weapon by those who own it) any thing that can be used as a substitute immediately gains public attention.

  Bunches of oil

  Jatropha being a shrub (a half sized tree belonging to the family euphorbiaceae) has a life span of about 50 years (hence periodical planting etc are not needed). It has succulent stem, single- lobbed large green leaves and grows to only eight to ten feet in height, and hence collection of fruits is easy. Each year it bears several bunches of fruits (each bunch has five to eight fruits) with oil- rich seeds, the oil is un-edible, but has some medicinal properties. The oil was previously used for making soaps and varnishes, the bio-diesel purpose is only a recently invented one.

  It is all about money, honey!

  The economics of planting it in commercial scale is baffling. The total oil yield will not be less than 1300 kilograms of seeds per hectare per year. It is about ten times the quantity corn can yield or 50% more than what sugarcane yield in ethanol. The money to be spent for cultivation is the most compelling aspect as it a perennial plant repeated planting is not necessary that saves much in cost. This crop generally requires no irrigation pesticide or manure. Only job of the farmer is to collect the fruits and send it to a mill or sell it outright and fill his pocket.

  Brazilian the brave

  Brazilians are very innovative and the last fuel crisis (when crude was traded above seventy dollars/barrel) was utilized by them as a great opportunity to market ethanol the bio petrol extracted from molasses via sugar-cane root. All their sugar factories turned out to be ethanol units) At present when crude is trading 50+ a barrel they are all out to find a new opportunity in this crisis (falling crude prize!). If their concerted efforts bear fruits soon there will gallons and gallons of solution for the fuel crisis (the bio-diesel).

  All gas no oil

  About one year back Indian Railway Minister Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav has declared that jatropha will be cultivated in the waste-lands owned by Indian Railway. It seems that his declaration ended up as just declaration as the crude prize eased a tad. Further declarations will come only when crude will jump to 80+ dollars a barrel. Indian Railway has got plenty of waste-lands in its custody, even leasing out it for jatropha farmers could earn a hefty amount for the Railways and employment for the laborers.

  A Lesson from Brazil

  There on bio-diesel company (Bionasa) with participation with local investors is all set to plant 2, 00,000 hectares with jatropha, Brazil is all set to make blending of 2% bio-fuel mandatory and companies are in a race to meet the ensuing demand. Brazil is already the top maker and exporter of ethanol and it makes a tidy sum out of the oil crises that raise its head occasionally. There is all evidence to show that in the near future jatropha will rise as the most popular oil crop in that country.

  Out-source it

  Recently US government has raised its allocation for promoting bio-fuels about five times and that augurs well with the present trend of turning to alternate fuels. The corn route they have selected seems to be a wrong one as there is more scope in jatropha both in cost of production and oil yield. Let us hope America will spend some portion of the allocation in promoting jatropha plants. If America has no time for cultivation, it can be outsourced, India is here with a lot of waste lands and a lot of waste people to plant it! 

mc mahant <mikemahant at hotmail.com> wrote:
      P  {  margin:0px;  padding:0px  }  body  {  FONT-SIZE: 10pt;  FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma  }    What is Jatropha called in Assamese= Bhwot Eraa
Fruits are like Singharas(Samosa) -have a few seeds - ripe/dry seeds are crushed to get the oil.
Barir Dhaapot Rwowea. Cattle avoid the toxic plant.
Not a harmless- all goody-goody plant though!
More in Water-Watch letters by Rajendra Singh pulling Kalam down.
Big yields promised byJustifiers.
Meager -uneconomical in the long run by opponents!
mm

---------------------------------
  Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 07:05:54 -0700
From: dilipdeka at yahoo.com
To: assam at assamnet.org
Subject: [Assam] Boon For Biofuels

  Biofuels galore - Gwbor Gas is one of them. I remember the efforts in India in the sixties and seventies to ferment Gwbor in tanks to produce methane and make each village self sufficient in lighting and cooking fuel. What happened to it?

  This article told me why Jatropha diesel is preferred over ethanol from corn. The Jatropha plants can grow where food crops like rice or corn will not. I am glad that some researchers are looking at the ecological big picture in stead of going whole hog for ethanol.
  Also I saw a clear picture of Jatropha nut for the first time. What is Jatropha called in Assamese?
  Dilip
  =================================================================

  Latest News

July 9, 2007   

Boon For Biofuels  New projects seek to create energy from a range of renewable feedstocks  Michael McCoy  CHEMICAL and biotechnology companies have announced a flurry of initiatives aimed at creating fuels and other forms of energy from a wide variety of biomass sources.
   Dreamstime   Proponents of jatropha say the oilseed doesn't compete with food crops for land.

  The projects seek to turn everything from algae to manure to oil seeds into sustainable energy that can supplement traditional fossil fuels. At least one scientist watching the energy sector, however, is deeply skeptical that crops can be grown for their energy content without dire environmental consequences.
  British companies BP and D1 Oils have formed a joint venture called D1-BP Fuel Crops to accelerate the planting of Jatropha curcas, a drought-resistant, oilseed-bearing tree, as a raw material source for biodiesel.
  The companies say they will invest around $160 million over the next five years to cultivate jatropha in Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, Central and South America, and India. They say the oilseed is a desirable biodiesel feedstock because it does not compete with food crops for good agricultural land or adversely impact the rainforest.
  Honeywell's UOP subsidiary, meanwhile, has embarked on a project to convert vegetable and algal oils into military jet fuels. With the help of $6.7 million in funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the company hopes to come up with renewable fuels that meet strict military specifications.
  Jennifer Holmgren, director of UOP's renewable energy and chemicals business, says her unit is focused on helping standard refineries accept a broader range of feedstocks. The jet fuel effort, she adds, will build on a recent agreement with oil company Eni to convert vegetable oils into diesel fuels in an existing Italian refinery.
  Finally, the Danish biotechnology companies Novozymes and Xergi are teaming to develop microorganisms that efficiently convert manure into electricity, heat, fuels, and fertilizer. Novozymes, the world's largest enzymes producer, cites a Danish government estimate that the energy stored in Danish manure could supply 25% of the country's transportation energy needs.
  Tad W. Patzek, a professor of geoengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, is critical of such biofuels initiatives. He takes issue with the basic proposition that "fresh plants produced in real time used as fuel can replace old plants, whose remnants have accumulated over the last 460 million years." Attempts to do so, Patzek warns, will rapidly bring on global ecosystem exhaustion.
  But John M. Deutch, a chemistry professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was director of energy research and undersecretary at the Department of Energy in the Carter Administration, is more sanguine. He sees the projects as evidence of corporate and government excitement about new technology that helps meet the world's future energy needs.
  "It is the nature of this high spirit of innovation that some of the ventures will sound good and not succeed, while others will sound bad and succeed," Deutch tells C&EN. "Individuals and investors will make their judgments and participate accordingly."

Chemical & Engineering News   
   ISSN 0009-2347   
   Copyright © 2007 American Chemical Society 

---------------------------------
  Palate Teasers: Straight from Master Chef! Sanjeev Kapoor _______________________________________________
assam mailing list
assam at assamnet.org
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.assamnet.org/pipermail/assam-assamnet.org/attachments/20070709/5c79d34a/attachment.htm>