Jatropha biodiesel uses 20,000 gallons of water per gallon of fuel; soy 14,000, study finds

In the Netherlands, a research team at the University of Twente, publishing in the June 2nd Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed the “water footprint” for thirteen crops used in the production of bioenergy.

The team found that it takes 14,000 gallons of water to make one gallon of rapeseed or soy biodiesel, but that figures ranged from country to country and were smaller in Western Europe. The average water requirement for jatropha was 20,000 gallons per gallon of biodiesel.

By contrast, sugarbeet required 1400 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol, while sugarcane required 2500 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol.

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