plant called jatropha is being hailed by scientists and policy makers as a potentially ideal source of biofuel
Worthless Weed Shows Promise as Biofuel
When Suleiman Diarra Banani's brother said the poisonous black seeds dropping from the seemingly worthless weed that had grown around his family farm for decades could be used to run a generator, or even a car, Banani did not believe him. But now that plant called jatropha is being hailed by scientists and policy makers as a potentially ideal source of biofuel, a plant that can grow in marginal soil or beside food crops, that does not require a lot of fertilizer and yields many times as much biofuel per acre planted as corn and many other potential biofuels.
A common weed in dry areas in parts of Africa is beginning to look like a miracle plant though previously thought to only provide poisonous fruit and fencing qualities according to a report in the New York Times "Mali’s Farmers Discover a Weed’s Potential Power ".
The weed needs little water and fertilizes the ground it grows in.
Described by Wikipedia and USDA as a Euphorbiaceae (related to Poinsettia).
And, at least one species is pretty enough to be found in nurseries in the L.A. area, though I suppose other Anglenos, like me find it hard enough to keep from watering the plant and quickly lose it to overwatering related diseases. The name of the locally sold variety is "Spicy Jatropha" (scientific name: Jatropha integerrima acc. Wiki).
The seeds are 40% oil. In third world counties it is being tauted as an income source for the world's poor and a fuel source for the oil and burnable slag after the oil is extracted usable by utilities that do not need a liquid fuel source.
This seems to be out of the bag.
I don't see how Big Oil can stop it or big business get it patented and taken out of the hands of the hoi polloi, now as some claim they have done with various other energy technologies.
I hope it works out for Africa and third world countries everywhere, big time. Cecil Rhodes noted long ago that Africa had to little land in the temperate zones and too much in the tropical areas (and much in drier climate areas) to be able to develop as Europe and the US did. This looks like the break they could use to get ahead with their climate. And even better is for more solutions to problems to be found that work well in the tropical climates of Africa.
Soybean farmers in the Midwest have little use for field pennycress. But that may change. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Peoria, Ill., are eyeing the annual winter weed's seed as both a biodiesel resource and biobased fumigant.
ARS research leader Terry Isbell notes that seed of pennycress, Thlaspi arvense, is 36 to 40 percent oil by weight. Additionally, long-chain fatty acids derived from its oil are similar to those of other biodiesel resources, including animal fats and soybean and sunflower oils. Biodiesel from these sources can be used alone or mixed with petroleum-based diesel to lower the emission of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and other pollutants in engine exhaust.
This winter, Isbell and colleagues at the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) in Peoria hope to convert pilot-scale amounts of pennycress oil into biodiesel so that they can further examine its characteristics. This hinges on the successful harvest of a 10-acre pennycress crop grown near Hanna City, Ill., expressly for that purpose.
But why bother, if soybeans can be used? One reason is that pennycress and soybeans often share the same crop fields. Farmers try to oust pennycress by spraying herbicide in the spring before planting soybeans, but the weed has already produced seed by then. Treating it as another crop rather than a weed could enable farmers to use their land to produce fuel in the winter from pennycress and food in the summer from soybeans, notes Isbell.
Pennycress' seed production—1,500 to 2,000 pounds per acre—could be well-suited to biodiesel applications. Isbell estimates oil from 1,000 pounds of seed will yield 50 gallons of biodiesel.
Crushed seed left over from biodiesel production, called meal, also has promise as an organic fertilizer and soil fumigant for low-acreage, high-value crops, reports NCAUR researcher Steve Vaughn. In field tests, the seedmeal's decomposition released allyl isothiocyanate and other substances that kept sicklepod and other weeds from germinating.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
Soybean farmers in the Midwest have little use for field pennycress. But that may change. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Peoria, Ill., are eyeing the annual winter weed's seed as both a biodiesel resource and biobased fumigant.
ARS research leader Terry Isbell notes that seed of pennycress, Thlaspi arvense, is 36 to 40 percent oil by weight. Additionally, long-chain fatty acids derived from its oil are similar to those of other biodiesel resources, including animal fats and soybean and sunflower oils. Biodiesel from these sources can be used alone or mixed with petroleum-based diesel to lower the emission of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and other pollutants in engine exhaust.
This winter, Isbell and colleagues at the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) in Peoria hope to convert pilot-scale amounts of pennycress oil into biodiesel so that they can further examine its characteristics. This hinges on the successful harvest of a 10-acre pennycress crop grown near Hanna City, Ill., expressly for that purpose.
But why bother, if soybeans can be used? One reason is that pennycress and soybeans often share the same crop fields. Farmers try to oust pennycress by spraying herbicide in the spring before planting soybeans, but the weed has already produced seed by then. Treating it as another crop rather than a weed could enable farmers to use their land to produce fuel in the winter from pennycress and food in the summer from soybeans, notes Isbell.
Pennycress' seed production—1,500 to 2,000 pounds per acre—could be well-suited to biodiesel applications. Isbell estimates oil from 1,000 pounds of seed will yield 50 gallons of biodiesel.
Crushed seed left over from biodiesel production, called meal, also has promise as an organic fertilizer and soil fumigant for low-acreage, high-value crops, reports NCAUR researcher Steve Vaughn. In field tests, the seedmeal's decomposition released allyl isothiocyanate and other substances that kept sicklepod and other weeds from germinating.
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