Jatropha A Feasible Alternative Renewable Energy

Constantly the biodiesel industry is looking for some option to produce eco-friendly energy. Biodiesel prepared from canola, sunflower and jatropha can replace or be combined with conventional diesel. During first half of 2000’s jatropha biofuel made the headlines as a preferred and appealing alternative. It is prepared from jatropha curcas, a plant species belonging to Central America that can be grown on wasteland.

Jatropha Curcas is a non edible plant that grows in the arid areas. The plant grows really quickly and it can yield seeds for about 50 years. The oil obtained from its seeds can be used as a biofuel. This can be blended with petroleum diesel. Previously it has been used two times with algae mix to sustain test flight of commercial airline companies.

Another favorable approach of jatorpha seeds is that they have 37% oil content and they can be burned as a fuel without improving them. It is likewise used for medical purpose. Supporters of jatropha biodiesel state that the flames of jatropha oil are smoke complimentary and they are successfully tested for basic diesel motor.

Jatropha biodiesel as Renewable Energy Investment has attracted the interest of many companies, which have actually evaluated it for vehicle usage. Jatropha biodiesel has been road checked by Mercedes and three of the cars and trucks have covered 18,600 miles by using the jatropha plant biodiesel.

Since it is because of some drawbacks, the jatropha biodiesel have not thought about as a terrific sustainable energy. The most significant problem is that no one knows that just what the productivity rate of the plant is. Secondly they don’t know how big scale growing might affect the soil quality and the environment as a whole. The plant requires five times more water per energy than corn and sugarcane. This raises another concern. On the other hand it is to be kept in mind that jatropha can grow on tropical climates with annual rains of about 1000 to 1500 mm. A thing to be kept in mind is that jatropha needs proper watering in the first year of its plantation which lasts for years.

Recent study says that it is true that jatropha can grow on abject land with little water and poor nutrition. But there is no evidence for the yield to be high. This might be proportional to the quality of the soil. In such a case it might need high quality of land and may require the same quagmire that is dealt with by many biofuel types.

Jatropha has one main disadvantage. The seeds and leaves of jatropha are toxic to humans and animals. This made the Australian federal government to ban the plant in 2006. The government stated the plant as intrusive types, and too dangerous for western Australian farming and the environment here (DAFWQ 2006).

While jatropha has stimulating budding, there are number of research obstacles remain. The significance of cleansing needs to be studied due to the fact that of the toxicity of the plant. Along side a systematic research study of the oil yield have to be undertaken, this is very crucial because of high yield of jatropha would most likely needed before jatropha can be contributed significantly to the world. Lastly it is likewise really essential to study about the jatropha species that can endure in more temperature level climate, as jatropha is quite restricted in the tropical climates.