In Zimbabwe, after focusing on R&D for the past dozen years, the government is jumping back into jatropha as a solution for fuel shortages with a new facility and 6,000 ha of plantations. Finealt Engineering, part of the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, has gotten biodiesel production costs down to 97 cents per liter […]
In Nigeria, the government’s Raw Materials Research and Development Council wants to revive interest in jatropha as potential feedstock for biodiesel. The council’s director general says as much as 200,000 ha of jatropha should be planted for biodiesel feedstock as well as for presscake that can be used for biogas feedstock. The council has been […]
In China, recent research published in a report in Nano showed biofuels were obtained from jatropha oil using carbon nanotube (CNT) catalyst, which showed efficient cracking activity. The performance was activated by the high stability, metal sites, acid sites, electroconductivity, and coking tolerance of CNT. Two cracking circulations were found in the hydroprocessing. The sulphur-free […]
In Nigeria, Malaysia’s Bionas has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kaduna state government to develop a $2.5 billion jatropha project with the aim of producing aviation biofuel. The company first announced its intentions for the project in October 2016 and says the project should already be online in two years. An additional waste-to-energy […]
After winning a small victory over the Germans during World War II, Winston Churchill said “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Today, Biofuels Digest asks is this the end of jatropha? Or is it just the beginning? […]
In Nigeria, oil trading company Taleveras Group has teamed up with the Global Green Development Group to establish jatropha production throughout West Africa with an eye on processing the oil at a biorefinery in Mississippi. The company is scoping out 15,000 ha in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, South Africa and Ethiopia for the 70 million […]
In Egypt, following three years of R&D, researchers from the National Research Center’s Department of Chemical Engineering have developed aviation fuel using a combination of used cooking oil and jatropha oil, though algal oils and palm oil have also been trialed in the mix. Using sewer water to irrigate the jatropha trees helps to keep […]
In Mozambique, the government has at last given up on jatropha as a potential biodiesel feedstock as the economic viability of the program dwindled in line with falling fossil fuel prices. The program was first launched with $130 per barrel oil but with current levels, the project the develop commercial-scale jatropha production with the assistance […]
In India, the cabinet has approved the closure of the two joint ventures set up in 2008 and 2009 with HPCL and Indian Oil with the Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency to develop and commercialize jatropha-based biodiesel. The agency had provided waste land to grow the jatropha on but the resulting crops had results that […]
In Zimbabwe, the country is looking to implement a 2% biodiesel blend by year’s end using fuel produced from jatropha. The country had looked to implement such a policy several years ago but the plans went by the wayside under a previous minister. Now the policy is back on the table along with returning to […]
