The proposed sites for development are in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and will use an Algae Enhancement Technology, the GB3000 system, employed for growing algae for the production of fish feed, proteins and biofuel. Prime Inc India’s current clients include Exxon, Shell, General Electric (GE) and Siemens.

“We look forward to working with Prime Inc India in the design, development and support of a cost-efficient algae production farm,” Liran Kosman, CFO of WHEN, said. “We anticipate scaling up operations and completing a number of significant algae projects in 2012.”

World Health recently acquired GNE-India, an algae technology firm with the distribution and licensing rights to a unique and innovative technology, the GNE GB 3000 system, to grow algae quickly and efficiently to produce biodiesel and commercial fish food protein. GNE-India owns and retains the territorial rights for distribution and sales of the proprietary technology in India and Sri Lanka.

The company enjoys exclusive distribution and licensing rights to the GNE GB 3000 system in India and Croatia.

In 2011, the GB 3000 system was used to grow local algae species like spirulina, as well as chlorella, for fish feed and biodiesel markets, Biodiesel Magazine reports.

WHEN is focused on biofuels produced from algae because, the company explains, it gives substantially higher yields in comparison to ethanol derived from corn, rapeseed, jatropha and palm oil. The company also works with enterprises producing progressive, broad-based solutions for better physical, nutritional and environmental health worldwide.

In addition, World Health is pursuing another use of algae: the efficient production of high-protein fish feed for commercial fish farms.By Natalia Real.FIS.

“Thailand is committed to the low-carbon pathway,” said Twarath Sutabutr, deputy director of the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency within Thailand’s Ministry of Energy. Sutabutr is leading the list of speakers for this week’s event.

The Clean Power Asia conference focuses on several elements of Thailand’s energy future, including renewable energy sources and cleaner fossil fuel-based power. The event aims to give Thailand the opportunity to showcase its green track record while highlighting the investment opportunities offered by its renewable energy industry. According to information released by the event’s organizers, approximately 300 delegates present at the conference will hear from energy experts representing more than 14 countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Korea, China, the Philippines, India, Australia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan and Iran.

Regarding the potential for biodiesel investment, Clean Power Asia’s team notes that the government of Thailand has established a goal to produce and use 4.25 million liters (1.12 million gallons) of biodiesel per day. This equates to a usage goal of approximately B7 in 2011. 

One of the goals of Thailand’s Energy Policy and Development Plan is to promote the use of biodiesel and other alternative transportation fuels. To help achieve that goal, the country has aimed to educate members of the public about alternative transportation fuels in order to build consumer confidence. The government has also been promoting the use of palm oil production within Thailand, with the goal of having 400,000 hectares (nearly 990,000 acres) of the feedstock in cultivation by 2012.

While the Clean Power Asia event focuses on investment opportunities, a training program in India will focus on the development of jatropha and other non-food  feedstocks for biodiesel production, including algae, castor, pongamia, moringa, simarouba, and jojoba. The 5-day event will address both feedstock development issues and oil extraction and process technology developments.

Nearly 10 sessions at the training event will focus exclusively on jatropha. According to CJP, these sessions will address genetics, agronomics and horticulture practices. “[The speakers] shall also discuss the need for universally-accepted industry standards for the development of this crop as well as the efforts to develop such activities in developing jatropha varieties with improved oil yield per hectare to achieve [a] three-fold goal of addressing energy, economics and execution with clear focus on critical issues facing [jatropha’s] role as a viable feedstock,” said the CJP in a statement.BIODIESEL MAGAZINE.

Jatropha seed oil touted for jets.

Photo provided by Mission New Energy Jatropha seeds yield as much as 40 percent oil that has been touted for use in diesel applications and refined into aviation-quality jet fuel.

A plant that some have scorned as a predator might well turn out to be part of the answer to rising fuel bills for consumers.

Jatropha curcas, a poisonous, semi-evergreen shrub that can grow as high as 20 feet, produces seeds laden with oil that backers say is an ideal biofuel. One company that maintains 194,000 acres of the plant under cultivation in India is looking to expand farming, and fuel production, in the United States.

Mission NewEnergy, an Australian-based firm with operations in India and Europe and a recently opened branch in San Antonio, says it can deliver refined Jatropha oil at about $40 to $50 a barrel. The firm’s U.S. entry also included listing its shares on Nasdaq, complementing its Australian Stock Exchange presence.

Mixed with traditional jet fuel, Jatropha oil already has been used on test flights by Continental Airlines, Air New Zealand and other carriers. Once approved for general use, Jatropha could help cut one of the aviation industry’s highest costs.

Jatropha can provide “environmentally responsible fuel without compromising the food supply, so we can help the Earth while helping the public,” said James Garton, president of the firm’s U.S. branch. “That means we can finally reverse the skyrocketing prices at the pump and dependence on traditional sources of oil.”

The race for the next big thing in biofuels is attracting serious investor attention. Jatropha is seen as a leading candidate along with such rivals as algae and camelina, a flowering flaxlike plant that, like Jatropha, can grow in marginal agricultural lands.

Jatropha has been touted as among the most promising biofuel sources, but it is not without problems.

In a study released last month, a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology looked at the efficiency of Jatropha and more than a dozen other proposed biofuel sources. Jatropha scored well as a fuel source and because the plant’s husks, shells and meal could be used as fertilizer and other industrial purposes. Some of that gain, however, is offset by production and refining costs and the need for land to cultivate the plant.

“You can’t say a biofuel is good or bad – it depends on how it is produced and processed, and that’s part of the debate that hasn’t been brought forward,” James Hileman, who teaches in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said in a statement accompanying the survey, which was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Mission NewEnergy said it is linked to its producers via contract farming agreements in more than 15,000 villages across five Indian states. Those operations, the firm said, are providing sustained employment for more than 140,000 previously impoverished farmers. It takes three to four years to get maximum yield from a Jatropha plant, with a 20-year productive life estimated for most plants.

Using a biofuel such as Jatropha in an industry such as aviation has its appeals.

At the end of May, two industry executives briefed congressional staffers on a report about the use of biofuels in the U.S. aviation industry. Speaking with The Washington Times by phone after the event, the executives noted the need for biofuels as a way to help meet the rising cost of jet fuel. A 1-cent increase in the price of jet fuel rings up an extra $175 million in costs for U.S. airlines, reports indicate.

“Fuel is our single biggest cost. Today, fuel costs 47 percent more than it did last year. That’s a pretty big spike for your single largest cost,” said Keith Loveless, vice president of corporate and legal affairs for Seattle-based Alaska Airlines. “We are looking for all sorts of alternatives,” he added.

Added Billy M. Glover, environment and aviation policy vice president at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, “It’s not a matter of one [biofuel] feedstock being better than others. It’s going to take a portfolio of feedstocks, a portfolio of processing methods. … [T]o get to scale and make biofuels viable, you need feedstock options and a variety of processing methods.”

Jatropha is being developed in Ghana, Tanzania, Peru and other nations such as India; a common denominator is the effort to grow the plant in areas where other crops aren’t easily cultivated. Some environmentalists have said Jatropha has been overhyped and that optimal oil production requires initial irrigation and fertilizer that otherwise would be used for food production, a condition supporters say would affect only the short term.

Government officials in the southern African nation of Namibia late last month put the brakes on plans for large-scale Jatropha plantations in the country’s northeast, citing the need for more study on the potential disruptive impact on food cultivation, landownership patterns and a loss of access to communal property.

Patrick M. O’Brien, a retired executive of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service who is now consulting for Mission NewEnergy, said Jatropha could find a domestic production base in an area extending “from Texas around the Gulf Coast up to South Carolina,” although not too far north because of frost concerns. The areas where Jatropha could be grown domestically include some where farmers might reap profits.WASHINGTON TIMES

Biodiesel is going to outer space. Well, not exactly but the jatropha plant will be part of the shuttle Atlantis’ last mission to space launching this July. Assistant Professor Wagner Vendrame, who works in the department of horticulture at the University of Florida’s research center in Homestead, Florida, will send the experiment to look at the effect of low gravity on the growth of the jatropha cells, a plant being researched for its viability to make biodiesel.

According to an article in The Gainsville Sun, Vendrame has sent similar experiments on previous shuttle flights. Vendrame hopes the experiments will result in the activation of dormant genes that could lead to increased oil content in the plant or bring out other factors that will improve biofuel production.

There are dozens of projects worldwide involving jatropha. Today, jatropha-based biodiesel has been successfully used in renewable jet fuel blends. However, it is still not grown in any significant quantities in the United States.

Many believe jatropha will be a good feedstock for biodiesel because it has a high oil content compared to other crops. Vendrame also hopes that his research can help make jatropha a viable alternative crop for Florida citrus growers who have faced crop setbacks due to disease.DOMESTIC FUEL.

The company broke into the US market with a stunning and innovative offtake contract for palm and jatropha-based biodiesel, with up to a billion gallons in total over a number of years. The contract has not become operational, for the time being, while the industry awaits a ruling on the GHG reduction numbers on palm biodiesel. Below 50 percent, the fuel will not qualify under the Renewable Fuel Standard as an advanced biofuel, and concerns over indirect land use change and palm-based deforestation in Indonesia have observers worried that generic palm will not make the cut.

BD: What about palm oil, and the timing of a separate sustainable palm oil pathway?

JG: There’s been a long running debate on certifications at the EPA. Either EPA will flunk palm or open the pathway. Our palm biodiesel has been recognized in the EU as sustainable – we got a mid range 50s to high 50s in EU. Because of the way we do it, we are confident that EPA will recognize our palm biodiesel either generically, or as a separate pathway for sustainable palm.

We understand the EPA has a desire to close the book on generic palm, somewhere inside of the next month. We would think that upon closing that – yes, then yes, if no, then fast track we hope to fast track our sustainable palm as a pathway, and by summer or maybe 3Q get approval on gPalm – Green Palm.we are comfortable with that because.

BD: And the sustainable palm discussion, will it come to an end, or even a satisfactory end?

JG: The palm deforestation discussion will go on. There are ways to do palm that are sustainability friendly. But palm has to be a part of the mix, the quantities are there.

BD: How did your Valero deal work – there were some elegant elements to it.

JG: Basically there were 3 buckets. There is the energy value of what you are selling – the BTUS. There’s the compliance value – the RIN plus any subsidy that applies. Then there’s the handling or aggravation factor, recognizing that its easier to buy a dry RIN than a wet barrel. Our deal is designed to take into account the ULSD, the cost of production, everything an obligated party would look at. So that it is indifferent whether you buy the RIN or barrel. It’s a winning deal for both us and Valero. We will sell them a low-cost biodiesel now, and be paid on a crude palm basis now. The agreement bridges the duration when we had palm, versus our own captive jatropha feedstock. It’s the first time, maybe the only agreement that has a RIN based component. Right now the contract is enforceable but not operational, because we are not yet supplying palm biodiesel to them pending the EPA ruling. But Valero continues to be very important to us.

BD: What’s your take on the Jatropha 1.0 catastophe?

JG: Well there was a lot of financing and building up of jatropha, despite failures in contract farming. Basically you had unknown yields, unknown agronomy, and poor quality genetics. The idea for a lot of companies, the sort of D1 approach, was to put capital into buying a tract of land, planting and hoping.

BD: What’s different with the new contract farming?

JG: We opted for contract farming in the near-term. It’s not D1- here’s a bag of feed and we hope you get somewhere. We have an active approach, we do GPS mapping, and are actively dealing with our contractors to optimize their yields. But for some time, we have to expect that yields are going to be low.

BD: You’re making some initial deliveries.

JG: We have seen the first small quantities, 500 tons or so of material. It’s very encouraging, especially how the cost for us to move and extract was in line with our expectations, and the pricing was good.

BD: Which market will you serve: power or fuel?

JG: In the end, the market potential has to be based on the highest and best use. In our case, the last four batches of jatropha were sold for power and CHP, not biodiesel. On the fuel side, the industry is not sure which molecule it wants, and there’s a heavy degree of reluctance at companies like valero and chevron to deal with the pain and logistics, though less so in EU. It strikes us that the opportunity in jatropha may well be in biojet, where we partner up or supply feedstock to a UOP.

BD: Just selling the crude jatropha oil?

JG: Mission is an integrated player, with feedstock and refining capacity, but we have to ask ourselves: Where is the value going? In jatropha, the value is going to the feedstock. If we are selling CJO out of India than margins better than refined in malaysia, even though our refining capability is important, in jatropha we may see higher and better uses outside of our refining. BD: Your goals with jatropha? JG: 150,000 barrels next year – a pittance, really. But we hope to see an improvement in the agronomy, and we hope another player comes up with the genetics, so that we can turn back to the contract farming, while understanding where to plant, the fundamental agronomy.

BD: Back to the US Renewable Fuel Standard for a moment, how important is it for you?

JG: It was THE game -changing event, the RFS. Unfortunately its impact was masked with the dollar tax credit and the carnage of 2008-09, and inability to crystallize what we were going to do around the RFS. But if indeed RFS has shifted away from a mechanism to subsidize the agricultural sector, and has become a genuine component of the energy platform, it must be maintained.

BD: How do see the RFS mandates for advanced biofuels being met?

JG: From our point of view, the only feedstock that can make a difference in the next five years is palm. Aside from that, there is maybe 600 Mgy of available feedstock with soy that’s available, and all the available tallows.

BD: How much real production capacity is there in the US?

JG: There’s 2.2BG of installed capacity. But if we look at it closely, the vast bulk of that it sub 50Mgy capacity that was built with a debt component. The ability to turn on and generate working capital has to be in serious question at this point. They have asset value problems, zero margin problems, long term contract problems. To produce a ton you have to come up with $1500 to sell something like $1550 in biodiesel, so an operator might need as much as $60M every 30 days – you need the capital lines. Meanwhile, the banks got stuck with the deals, the bulk of those participants with stars in their eyes, who thought you could get into biodiesel based on good old fashioned leverage. Well, in our view, the small refineries can’t operate. Only two sectors can: the integrated players like ADM Cargill, and Bunge. Plus, maybe the likes of the REGs with their stronger balance sheet, and some small guys with microeconomics because of local mandates, subsidies, or low-cost feedstock in small quantities. Overall, we see 500-600 Mgy of operating capacity.

BD: What do you hear from the players on the sidelines?

JG: We get approached daily for tolling arrangements, bankers with assets that are far underwater, and now sitting idle at least 7-8 months. It would take something like a $3 RIN, to make a $7 gallon, to get o the point where some people can turn on some capacity there. Biofuels Digest 2011.

SOURCE: CHECK BIOTECH

Topics are carefully selected to cover the Biology, Engineering, Marketing and Financial aspects of algae commercialization. CJP is recognized as an important platform for productive exchanges among the Academic, Commercial and Investment communities on nonfood biodiesel crops.

Centre for Jatropha Promotion & Biodiesel (CJP) is the only premier research and development organization that arranges the unique training for all stakeholders to provide them the opportunity to understand, learn, act and implement the nonfood biodiesel plans from ground zero to Biodiesel production in a very successful manner. Algae are one of the most promising feedstocks for future bio-diesel production. The advantageous points about algae are their widespread availability, higher oil yields and pressure on cultivated land for production of biodiesel is reduced. Thus, algae will be the future of fuel. Algae as a fuel source are incredible. Some types of algae are made up of 50% oil, which can be made into biofuel more economically.

Theoretically, algae can yield between 1,000 to 20,000 gallons of oil per acre, depending on the specific strain. That is enormous productivity as compared with agricultural based biofuels.

Global Algae World India 11 (GAWI 11) shall Highlights the updated research and technology on algae biodiesel from around the World. Algae Experts will meet to reveal the latest developments in algae research, the newest harvesting, dewatering and modification techniques, and tell how the process can be scaled up.

GAWI 11 will provide an excellent opportunity to the investors, entrepreneurs, biodiesel companies, renewable fuel experts, their associates and academia to share their experiences and knowledge on Algae Biodiesel.

It will give them an excellent opportunity to know more about the latest research and developments in the fields of algae mass production systems, photo bioreactor technologies and other important areas of Algae Biodiesel Industry. The Programme would cover all the topics related to Algae Biodiesel Industry with live demo of algae harvesting

While talking on GAWI 11, Mr. S.S.Mishra Director (Training) said, “CJP provides you a single platform, the best expertise to discuss and analyze the present and future dynamics of ALGAE from a technological and economic angle .Global Algae World India 2011 shall be the unique knowledge platform to share the latest information on: What opportunities do algae have to offer in the coming decades?; Why is there such a high level of interest for algae at this point of time?; What influence and position will algae take over ten years in the global economy?

“Introducing the real world of Algae and its scientific commercialization for Development of Sustainable Non-Food Algae Oil Crop Projects, Programmes and Priorities to Feed Biodiesel Industry Worldwide, the programme shall rich your knowledge with regards to amazing algae aviation fuel”. He concluded

For more information regarding registration, package cost, etc ., kindly contact:

Director (Training Division)

Centre for Jatropha Promotion & Biodiesel

TELE: +91 141 2335839 

FAX: (+91) 141 2335968

MOBILE: (+91) 9829423333

www.jatrophabiodiesel.org

About CJP

CJP has the privilege to provide most authoritative Knowledge platform known for Development of Sustainable Non-Food Jatropha Oil Crop Projects, Programmes and Priorities to Feed Biodiesel Industry Worldwide and has established the Biodiesel Business Academy (BBA) to provide quality, impartial, informative and enjoyable advanced level training with enhanced technology in the field of Biodiesel production. The BBA delivers Training to international and national participants/professionals of green energy industry to increase and distribute knowledge and skills. Whether you are new to the industry, have recently changed jobs or simply wish to refresh your knowledge, our training should become a key part of your personal or company professional development programme.

CJP is dedicated to the development of oil seed bearing trees (OSBT) — non-food multiple vegetable oil plantation and technologies in order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, bring greater control and security of fuel supply and reduce dangerous climate changing emissions, including CO2.

CJP is pioneering the science, planting and production of inedible vegetable oils by planting of a variety of tree and non-food crop plantation.
CJP is engaged in scientific commercialization of non-food fuel crop- that designs and implements the growing of various oil seed bearing tree (OSBT) crops worldwide in a structured Agri-Supply chain, Value additions of inedible oil seeds and research activities thereon & provides support/services from “Soil to Oil” for development and establishment of the non -food Bio-fuel crops.

CJP use its proprietary knowledge to implement programmes through its expertise, technology and IPR knowledge creating new industry and job creation and the offsetting of climate change.

source: 7thspace

Urgente24 reported 8 / 11 that negotiations were between the producers and the government to unfreeze the internal value of biodiesel derived from soybean (see related). However, the conflict would come to an end for the pressures of the association that brings together workers in the sector.

Biodiesel.com.ar site reported, the update of prices was rushed by a demonstration of the Union of Petroleum private gas and biofuels San Lorenzo, Santa Fe, which warned of the effect of this freeze on jobs.

“It is the role of union leaders to defend the workers, the union is the only
tool that workers have to enforce their rights, “said Ruben Perez, secretary general of the union, who at the situation of the sector had said that SMEs are planning advanced suspensions and holidays for staff. “We prepared all the logistics to make roadblocks,” he threatened.

But after a meeting with the national government with De Vido and Javier Urquiza coordinator of the National Biofuels Program of the Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services, an agreement was reached.

“We made it clear that defending the workers, there were formal commitment from that in 10 days will fix the problem and fixed the prices of biofuels for oil companies, which as so far not been published to increase the price of soybeans , the companies lost about $ 30,000 “was what he said the unionist.

Thus, the price is set at $ 3,920 to $ 4,200 in November and December. Currently the price is $ 3,769 a tonne, equivalent to 1,136 liters, for the domestic market catering to oil companies.

Exports grow

Biodiesel exports between January and October this year accumulated a total of U.S. $ 994 million, a 37.8% higher than those recorded in 2009, even though the court did not apply to diesel oil required for domestic consumption, implemented by the Law 26.093 .

At this rate, exports of biofuel end the year at around U.S. $ 1,200 million, which would be above the value of exports of gas oil, gasoline and fuel oil.

During the meeting of the value chain of the Biofuels organized by the Argentina Association of Biofuels and Hydrogen, is recalled that the industry’s installed capacity is 2 million tonnes of production and new investment grows up.

Speaking of the prospects for biofuel production, the engineer Fernando Peláez anticipated that in 2010, are being exported one million tons of biodiesel, plus the placement of 300 thousand tons in the domestic market.

The mandatory cut gas oil to biodiesel began the first day of 2010 with five percent in the aggregate to fossil fuel equivalent to about 600 thousand tons of biodiesel.

This summer, the cut was extended to 7% given the installed capacity of the manufacturing industry and domestic market needs.

Globally, Argentina ranks fourth in the production of biodiesel after Germany, France, and close to Brazil.

But, it is estimated that the leadership in the production and export of biodiesel for Argentina is in full expansion phase with a potential market in the world where demand is growing.

“Argentina’s biodiesel industry will have a sustained growth in the dissertation Peláez ventured.

Source Urgente 24

BIODIESEL BLOGSPOT

BIODIESEL NEWS

HYDERABAD, India, Sep 20, 2010 (IPS) – With a gas-guzzler of an economy, India had been spending tens of billions of dollars annually to import petroleum. And so its 2009 policy on biofuels mandated that by 2017, India would have enough biofuel production to cover at least 20 percent of the country’s oil consumption.

The government has in fact been encouraging the cultivation of jatropha curcas for the past seven years, believing that would be the fastest way to have the volume of biofuel the country would need – 13 million tonnes, or 30 times more biodiesel than what is being produced at present.

But now, even green groups are saying India’s biofuel efforts have fallen into a rut.

In fact, Suneel Parasnis, Asia coordinator of Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN), a multilateral agency bringing innovative clean energy projects to interested investors, says, “Biofuels have failed because of unavailability and high price of stock feed for biodiesel processing plants all over India.”

Yet banker-turned-biofuel producer Sreenivas Ghatty retorts, “That’s because we put the cart before the horse.”

Indeed, inadequate preparation and understanding seem to have been major contributors to India’s bumpy trip of its biofuel programme. But so too has been the greed of fly-by- night operators who made quick profits by selling seeds, saplings, and unrealistic dreams of profit to gullible farmers.

At first glance, jatropha seemed to be the perfect biofuel source for India, just as it has been touted for many developing countries. For one, it was touted for having the ability to grow on ‘waste’ land, thus skirting a fuel- versus-food conflict. For another, each of its seeds can have as much as 40-percent oil content. The plant itself is carbon-neutral as well, absorbing as much carbon dioxide as it releases later as fuel.

A federal planning commission report in 2003 also said that potentially 36 million hectares in India – mostly government waste and forest land, land beside railway tracks and protective hedge around private agro-farms – were ideal for jatropha plantations. By 2006, many Indian farmers and oil companies were growing jatropha, their enthusiasm fuelled by land and tax incentives offered by the government.

Farmers have since discovered that jatropha produces much higher yields on fertile, irrigated land and needs chemical fertilisers as well. And while it may survive on ‘waste’ land, it will not grow in volumes that would pay off for small-time farmers.

“One of the biggest problems is having farmers pull out of jatropha before fruit- bearing starts by the third year,” says K Koteshwar Rao of Nandan Biomatrix, an integrated biofuel research-producer here in Hyderabad, which recently acquired global patents for higher oil-yield genotypes of jatropha. “For the next 35 years they need only tend and harvest, but they run out of patience.”

“We are (also) advising multi-cropping of dryland legumes, pulses, and oilseeds to sustain the initial no- income period,” he adds.

According to Rao, one jatropha shrub at its full-grown height of three metres would need “up to two litres of survival watering per non-rainy day”.

“One deep bore well could suffice for a 50-hectare plantation,” he adds. “Nutrient requirement per hectare works out to 50 to70 kilogramme nitrogen, 50 kg phosphorous, 70 kg potassium, along with 30 kg sulphur.”

“Going for large-scale plantations without the proper set of practices is risky, and more importance should be given to research and development work focusing on the genetic improvement of the species, and agronomic practices,” he cautions.

Unsurprisingly, state governments that had proactively established separate entities to promote jatropha biodiesel just five years ago are less enthusiastic today.

The central state of Chhattisgarh, for instance, was revving up to become India’s jatropha hub in 2005. A check of Chhattisgarh Bio-fuel Development Authority’s website reveals that the last entry under its ‘achievements’ is dated September 2007.

Big-time investors, however, remain attracted by the prospect of biofuel profits – and sometimes use questionable means to get these, say activists.

“Land grabs by private biofuel investors are high in poorest and least resistant areas in eastern state of Orissa and Central India,” says activist Puspanjali Satpathy of the Bhubaneswar-based environmental non-profit group Vasundhara.

Just this year in Bolangir, Orissa, private enterprises, including a technical college, lured farmers into growing jatropha by offering 175 U.S. dollar loans to buy seeds and saplings. Under the scheme, the loans would be repaid from jatropha seed harvests. But the deal has apparently been set up in such a way that by harvest time three years later, the farmers would have already lost these very lands to an irrigation project there.

In Patnagarh, in the same district in Orissa, about 162 hectares were bought by a Delhi-based private enterprise in 2005. But now the former landowners – local farmers – say that they had been led to think the deal, which they say had been brokered by district officials, was a three-year lease agreement. The angry villagers are taking legal recourse to get back their land.

All these have left firm biofuel believers like Ghatty frustrated. Now a consultant based in Melbourne, Australia, Ghatty insists, “(Alternative) energy sources need to be developed – there are no two ways about that. Biofuels are the cheapest and the most sustainable alternative.” He points out that jatropha biodiesel can be produced and consumed locally in remote areas – to run irrigation pumps and lighter transport vehicles, and light up homes. But, he says, the policies for grassroots energy security must be clear-cut.

These policies “should lead to energy self-sufficiency in regional, remote areas, promoting area development”, says Satpathy. “But first, we need a social audit on biofuels.” (END)

By Manipadma Jena

SOURCE: IPS NEWS

The investment will span over a seven-year period. Speaking about the investment, the minister of natural resources Christian Paradis said: ‘By investing in this project we are helping to create and sustain local jobs and economic opportunities while creating a healthier environment for all Canadians.’

 The Biocardel Quebec plant will use animal fat and waste cooking oil to manufacture around 40 million litres a year of biodiesel, which will then be sold to Quebec-based diesel producers, in addition to producers located in the US. ‘We are very pleased with the government of Canada’s support. It will help to secure the future of our biodiesel production,’ commented Biocardel Quebec’s president Rene Delarus.

‘Biocardel’s production of biodiesel and our R&D work in algal biofuels and recovery of by-products will help to reduce greenhouse has emissions while promoting a sustainable environment.’ This CA$18.79 million investment is part of a $1.5 billion investment by the Canadian government that will take place over a total of nine years.

SOURCE: BIOFUELS NEWS

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has recently released a new report that champions jatropha as a promising biodiesel crop especially for global rural farmers. The report, “Jatropha: A Smallholder Bioenergy Crop, the Potential for Pro-Poor Development,” set out to examine the potential for jatropha as a sustainable biodiesel crop and has been in development since 2008.

The authors write, “As developing countries face increasing local demand for energy in rural areas, they also must deal with both economic and environmental pressure on agricultural lands in general. The possibility of growing energy crops such as Jatropha curcas L. has the potential to enable some smallholder farmers, producers and processors to cope with these pressures.”

The report says jatropha is a promising crop in part because it can grow on marginal lands, in drought conditions and animals do not graze on the crop. It also holds the promise of high oil output. The report also notes some of the feedstock’s drawbacks which include the fact that no consistently high yielding varieties have been developed and because the plant is toxic to both humans and animals, it can not be used for livestock feed, a major added value to most biofuel feedstock production.

Jatropha  originated in Central America and is making headway in Africa and parts of Asia for biodiesel development. Experts predict that by 2015, Indonesia will be the largest jatropha producer in Asia, Ghana & Madagascar in Africa and Brazil in Latin America.

While the report ultimately favors the crop, it does caution that depending on how programs are developed, there could be significant environmental damage that would outweigh the positive environmental attributes of biodiesel.

The report does not study the possible future of jatropha in the U.S., although at this time there are a few studies underway. In addition, it is not recognized as a biodiesel feedstock under current Renewable Fuels Legislation (RFS2).Joanna Schroeder – August 4th, 2010.

SOURCE: DOMESTIC FUEL