Jatropha study in California

HOLTVILLE, CALIF.: A trial jatropha plantation funded by Chevron will see the transplanting of jatropha seeds this spring into an acre parcel at the University of California Desert Research and Extension Center (DREC) in Holtville, Calif.

"I think jatropha would be ideal for this area," said Sham Goyal, University of California (UC), Davis agronomist, and a member of the university's jatropha research team. "A realistic estimate is an acre of jatropha could produce from 500 to 600 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year. If you're paying US$5 per gallon for diesel, that's about US$2,500 per acre of gross return."

Jatropha produces fruit-seeds for about 30 years and grows best in well-drained soils with good aeration. The plant is well adapted for marginal soils with low nutrition. Plantings at DREC are sub-surface irrigated. Goyal said annual water requirements are about 2 acre feet.

The plants in the DREC plot are planted 6 feet (1.8 m) apart with 15 feet (4.5 m) between the rows.

In addition to biodiesel, jatropha oil can also be used as biomass to power electricity power plants or applied in medicinal uses. Other possible outputs include paper, soap, cosmetics, toothpaste and organic fertilizer seed cake.

The total jatropha plantation in the Americans stands at more than 64,000 acres this year, Goyal said citing a global jatropha market study. Production could total 4 million acres by 2015. Asia is expected to grow 2.3 million acres this year and surpass 22 million acres by 2015.

Read more info here

posted by Sudha @ 10:26 PM