ABOUT JATROPHA PLANT
THE PLANT- PROFILE

  • INTRODUCTION

    Jatropha carcass is a drought-resistant perennial, growing well in marginal/poor soil. It is easy to establish, grows relatively quickly and lives, producing seeds for 50 years. Jatropha the wonder plant produces seeds with an oil content of 37%. The oil can be combusted as fuel without being refined. It burns with clear smoke-free flame, tested successfully as fuel for simple diesel engine. The by-products are press cake a good organic fertilizer, oil contains also insecticide.

    Medically it is used for diseases like cancer, piles, snakebite, paralysis, dropsy etc. Jatropha grows wild in many areas of India and even thrives on infertile soil. A good crop can be obtained with little effort. Depending on soil quality and rainfall, oil can be extracted from the jatropha nuts after two years. The annual nut yield ranges from 0.5 to 12 tons. The kernels consist of oil to about 60 percent; this can be transformed into biodiesel fuel through esterification.

    Family: Euphorbiaceae Synonyms: Carcass purgans Medic. Vernacular/common names: English- physic nut, purging nut; Hindi - Ratanjyot Jangli erandi; Malayalam - Katamanak; Tamil - Kattamanakku; Telugu - Pepalam; Kannada - Kadaharalu; Gujarathi - Jepal; Sanskrit - Kanana randa.

  • Botanical Features

    It is a small tree or shrub with smooth gray bark, which exudes a whitish colored, watery, latex when cut. Normally, it grows between three and five meters in height, but can attain a height of up to eight or ten meters under favourable conditions.

  • Leaves

    It has large green to pale-green leaves, alternate to
    sub-opposite, three-to five-lobed with a spiral phyllotaxis.

  • Flowers

    The petiole length ranges between 6-23 mm. The inflorescence is formed in the leaf axil. Flowers are formed terminally, individually, with female flowers usually slightly larger and occur in the hot seasons. In conditions where continuous growth occurs, an unbalance of pistillate or staminate flower production results in a higher number of female flowers.

  • Fruits

    Fruits are produced in winter when the shrub is leafless, or it may produce several crops during the year if soil moisture is good and temperatures are sufficiently high. Each inflorescence yields a bunch of approximately 10 or more ovoid fruits. Three, bi-valved cocci are formed after the seeds mature and the fleshy Carapace dries.

  • Seeds

    The seeds become mature when the capsule changes from green to yellow, after two to four months.

  • Flowering and fruiting habit

    The trees are deciduous, shedding the leaves in the dry season. Flowering occurs during the wet season and two flowering peaks are often seen. In permanently humid regions, flowering occurs throughout the year. The seeds mature about three months after flowering. Early growth is fast and with good rainfall conditions nursery plants may bear fruits after the first rainy season, direct sown plants after the second rainy season. The flowers are pollinated by insects especially honey bees.

products

The Advantages of BIO DIESEL
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  • BIO DIESEL is the most valuable form of renewable energy that can be used directly in any existing, unmodified diesel engine.
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  • Energy Independence: Considering that oil priced at $60 per barrel has had a disproportionate impact on the poorest countries, 38 of which are net importers and 25 of Which import all of their oil; the question of trying to achieve greater energy independence one day through the development of biofuels has become one of ‘when’ rather than ‘if,’ and, now on a near daily basis, a biofuels programme is being launched somewhere in the developing world.
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  • Smaller Trade Deficit: Rather than importing other countries’ ancient natural resources, we could be using our own living resources to power our development and enhance our economies. Instead of looking to the Middle East for oil, the world could look to the tropics for biofuels. producing more biofuels will save foreign exchange and reduce energy
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  • Expenditures and allow developing countries to put more of their resources into health, education and other services for their neediest citizens.
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  • Economic Growth: Biofuels create new markets for agricultural products and stimulate rural development because biofuels are generated from crops; they hold enormous potential for farmers. In the near future—especially for the two-thirds of the people in the developing world who derive their incomes from agriculture.

    Today, many of these farmers are too small to compete in the global market, especially with the playing field tilted against them through trade distorting agricultural subsidies. They are mostly subsistence farmers who, in a good year, produce enough to feed their families, and in a bad year, grow even poorer or starve. But biofuels have enormous potential to change this situation for the better.

    At the community level, farmers that produce dedicated energy crops can grow their incomes and grow their own supply of affordable and reliable energy.

    At the national level, producing more biofuels will generate new industries, new technologies, new jobs and new markets.
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  • Cleaner Air: Biofuels burn more cleanly than gasoline and diesel. Using biofuels means producing fewer emissions of carbon monoxide, particulates, and toxic chemicals that cause smog, aggravate respiratory and heart disease, and contribute to thousands of premature deaths each year.
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  • Less Global Warming: Biofuels contain carbon that was taken out of the atmosphere by plants and trees as they grew. The Fossil fuels are adding huge amounts of stored carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, where it traps the Earth's heat like a heavy blanket and causes the world to warm. Studies show that biodiesel reduces CO2 emissions to a considerable extent and in some cases all most nearly to zero.
In Nut-shell
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  • BIO DIESEL is the most valuable form of renewable energy that can be used directly in any existing, unmodified diesel engine.
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  • BIO DIESEL fuel and can be produced from oilseed plants such as rape seeds, sunflower, canola and or JATROPHA CARCASS.
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  • BIO DIESEL is environmental friendly and ideal for heavily polluted cities.
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  • BIO DIESEL is as biodegradable as salt
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  • BIO DIESEL produces 80% less carbon dioxide and 100% less sulphur dioxide emissions. It provides a 90% reduction in cancer risks.
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  • BIO DIESEL can be used alone or mixed in any ratio with mineral oil diesel fuel. The preferred ratio if mixture ranges between 5 and 20% (B5 - B20)
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  • BIO DIESEL extends the live of diesel engines
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  • BIO DIESEL is cheaper then mineral oil diesel
The Process

The process of converting vegetable oil into biodiesel fuel is called Transesterification and is luckily less complex then it sounds.

Chemically, Transesterification means taking a triglyceride molecule or a complex fatty acid, neutralizing the free fatty acids, removing the glycerin, and creating an alcohol ester. This is accomplished by mixing methanol with sodium hydroxide to make sodium methoxide. This liquid is then mixed into the vegetable oil. After the mixture has settled, Glycerin is left on the bottom and methyl esters, or biodiesel is left on top and is washed and filtered.

The final product BIO DIESEL fuel, when used directly in a Diesel Engine will burn up to 75% cleaner then mineral oil Diesel fuel.

The Technology

The technology is mature and proven
Presently, the indigenously designed bio-fuel plant for 250 lt. /day is in operation. We have designed and develop bio-fuel plants of 100,000 metric tones per annum capacity for installation in different in the same Island and are ready to place 4 plants.

Parts of the country. Effective marketing chain needs to be planned for enabling farmers to reap the benefits directly. Bio-fuel mission will provide technological and employment generation focuses for the rural sector. Use of one hundred thousand hectares of green land for Jatropha cultivation can lead to generation of minimum sixty thousand (60,000) jobs
FEED STOCK PRODUCTION PER HECTARE & COST THEREOF

FEEDSTOCK Country Yield/hectare (kg) Rate per Ton(US$)
SOYA OIL USA 375 1300
RAPESEED OIL Europe 1000 808
JATROPHA OIL INDIA 3000 650
PALM OIL Malaysia 5000 1300