Bharat Petroleum, SG Biofuels ink deal for massive jatropha 2.0 deployment in India

Jatropha 1.0: game over, Jatropha 2.0: Game on — SG Biofuels, Bharat Petroleum hook up for makeover of Indian jatropha

In India, SG Biofuels and Bharat Renewable Energy, a unit of India’s second largest oil company, Bharat Petroleum, signed a landmark commercial agreement  to develop and deploy elite hybrids of Jatropha across a total 86,000 acres in this phase of development.

The agreement precisely locates more than a third of the total 250,000 acreage pledged for deployment by SG Biofuels earlier this year, in this phase of commercialization of its elite JMax hybrid seeds.

BREL has projects across the state of Uttar Pradesh for the plantation of energy crops including Jatropha Curcas and Pongamia, but specific locations for deployment were not disclosed by the partners, pending an aggressive crop development effort to produce high performing hybrid varieties of Jatropha adapted to unique growing conditions across the country.

Jatropha 1.0 to jatropha 2.0

The announcement, which is the largest single deployment of jatropha 2.0 hybrid seeds to date, comes fittingly in the geographic region that suffered the most disappointments with jatropha 1.0 over the past seven years.

SGB will draw from the advancements of its global JMax crop development centers where the company is optimizing elite hybrid varieties of Jatropha through a combination of advanced breeding and biotechnology. The centers feature hybrid material from the company’s germplasm library totaling more than 12,000 genotypes. SGB will work with BREL to select, test and scale the highest yielding, most commercially viable hybrid varieties for growing regions in India, including the initial 86,000 acre deployment.

“The days of selling seed with a service program that consists of ‘good luck’ are over,” commented SG Biofuels CEO Kirk Haney in speaking with the Digest about the announcement.

“With the genetic diversity of their Jatropha hybrid material combined with ability to produce large volumes of hybrid seed, SG Biofuels is an ideal partner to work with to successfully develop, validate and scale Jatropha as the primary source for biodiesel in India,” said Mr. MV Radhakrishnan, chief executive officer of Bharat Renewable Energy Ltd.

SGB’s integrated breeding and biotechnology approach forms the foundation for its JMax Jatropha Optimization Platform, which draws from company’s germplasm library, the sequence of the Jatropha genome, molecular markers and advanced biotech and synthetic biology tools to allow energy companies, governments and growers to select, test and scale elite Jatropha cultivars for unique growing conditions around the world.

India’s prospects in jatropha

In December 2009, the Indian Government developed its National Policy on Biofuels targeting 20% blending of bioethanol and biodiesel into petrol and diesel markets. Government policy stipulates the use of wastelands to cultivate non-edible oil seed plants without affecting food security. According to the Asian Development Bank, the current cultivation of Jatropha and other non-edible oilseeds will need to increase by 32 million hectares (79 million acres) to meet the nation’s biodiesel targets.

Key to meeting those targets: the developments of plants that are optimized for the climate and soil conditions. “Growing seeds and plants in a nursery, without any idea of where they might eventually be utilized,” commented Haney, “was part of why jatropha 1.0 failed as a business model.”

The new Jatropha ecosystem

“Our partnership with BREL is a great example how collaborations across the entire value chain – from crop science and agronomics to downstream refining and logistics – are the key to the successful scaling of Jatropha,” said Haney. With the announcement, Bharat joins an ecosystemthat includes Life Technologies as a genetics and synthetic biology partner, and Koch FHR as downstream refining and logistics partner. Both Life and Koch FHR have invested in SG Biofuels.

The economics

Can jatropha oil be competitive with crude oil as a feedstock for fuel aimed at diesel engines? That mightily depends on oil prices, which are notoriously volatile. SG’s take? “Given our current material and development platform we can produce Jatropha crude oil in India for between $55 and $65 per barrel,” said Haney.

How does that range stack up? Important to remember Coskata CMO Wes Bolsen’s dictum from the dais at the 2010 Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference: “If any of us seriously thought that the long-term price of oil wasn’t heading for $100 per barrel, none of us would be in the business.”

The Digest’s Take

Well, it’s India where jatropha 1.0 bloomed and died, and it remains the grandest prize in jatropha development. 79 million acres in oil seed development, to meet the nation’s biodiesel targets – why, that’s the US wheat lands, or soybeans.

So, SGB is taking on the biggest challenge, for the biggest rewards. The development of the elite hybrids that will unlock the value in jatropha will take time. So will the development of the higher-value markets for jatropha waste, which will be ultimately measured in the millions of tonnes.

It’s important to think in the long-term, instead of conceiving of jatropha 2.0 as another sort of medieval “miracle play” that will unlock jatropha’s value in the next 15 minutes. But the 80 million acres are indeed out there – and we don’t see other oilseed crops, such as pongamia, making the same strides towards the establishment of the elite cultivars and seeds required for a triumph at scale. Meanwhile, the bringing together of Life, Koch FHR and Bharat into a single ecosystem is a very promising step.

So, it’s hardly “game over,” but for sure it is “game on”.