BIO DIESEL PROJECT
This project started as a community project, we were looking for ways to employ unemployed school leavers and in doing so we found this resource. We trained them to make bio fuels with vegetable oils, then found there to be a shortage of old vegetable oils and started to investigate new resources. We found a plant that produce from 4000 liters of oil per hectare , Jatropha curcas.
Summary:
Bio diesel is without a doubt the way of the future. Environmentally speaking, surveys have shown the long-term effects of using bio diesel in conventional diesel engines. It is important for this generation establish a long-term vision to ensure sustainable development is South Africa and all around the world.
Bio diesel is environmentally friendly, and will improve the quality of life for all living organisms on planet earth. The comprehensive body of bio diesel data serves to demonstrate the significant benefits of bio diesel to the environment and to public health overall. Across the globe environmental concerns and energy security issues have prompted legislation and regulatory actions spurring demand for alternative fuels such as bio diesel. However, the greatest driving force for the use of bio diesel and bio diesel blends is the need to have a fuel that fulfills all of the environmental and energy needs of the world today.
Bio Diesel is the way of the future
For a truly renewable source of oil, crops or other similar cultivatable sources would have to be considered. Plants can offer a sustainable oil source for bio diesel production. Different plants produce usable oil at different rates. Some studies have shown the following annual producing capabilities as follows per hectare in liters:
Soybean – 400 – 450
Sunflower – 600 – 800
Rapeseed – 1200
Jatropha curcas – 4000
The oil producing capabilities of the Jatropha tree furthermore seemed to outmatch its nearest competition by far. Sources suggest that Jatropha curcas can even produce up to 6000 liters of oil per hectare.
Jatropha curcas
Jatropha is a very exciting process in the oil industry, as is being reported all around the world.
It is envisaged that approximately 63 000 hectares of the Jatropha will be planted in Namibia by the year 2013, which would contribute N$189 million to GDP.
The oil is likely to be used in the bio-energy sector for blending into commercial diesel, decentralized on farm-blending into agricultural diesel, for exports to niche markets, running an envisaged 12 small 1MW decentralized power station and other uses such as soap making and substitution for paraffin.
Jatropha curcas is a drought-resistant perennial, growing well in marginal/poor soil. It is easy to establish, grows relatively quickly and lives, producing fruit for 50 years. It produces seed with oil content of 37 % the oil can be combusted as fuel without being refined. The by-products are press cake- a good organic fertilizer. The oil also contains insecticides. Medically it is used for treating diseases like cancer, snakebites, paralysis etc.
Properties of Jatropha curcas
Family: euphorbiaceae (spurge family).
Jatropha thrives on infertile soil, a good crop can be obtained with very little effort. Depending on the soil quality and rainfall, oil can be extracted from the seeds after two to five years. The kernels can consist of up to about 60% oil – this can be transformed into bio diesel through the processes explained above.
The origin of this tree seems to be unknown, but it is believed to have come from Mexico and South America. It has spread all across the world, but is available in South Africa.
it is a small shrub-like tree with smooth gray bark. It exudes a whitish colored latex. The tree can grow up to between 3 to 5 meters in height and even higher. Jatropha is also known as the physic nut.
There are male – and female plant of Jatropha curcas.
The black thin-shelled seeds are considered toxic; they contain the toxalbumin curcin and this makes them fatally toxic.
Roasting the seeds seems to kill the toxic.
The fruit contains 2 – or 3 large black, oily seeds. The flowers are green-yellow and yellow when ripe. The leaves of the tree are green to pale-green, three-to five-lobed structure.
Physic nut has insecticidal – and fungicidal properties. It is a drought resistant shrub with a smooth gray bark.
Caution is advised when using physic nut!
When irrigated it produces seeds during the whole year.
The amount of oil produced per hectare increases annually.
In Suriname’s traditional medicine, the leaves of this plant are used
* against stomachache, diagnosed in children:
* boiled leaves for conditions of the gums and throat;
* tea of the leaves for stoppage of urine, constipation, backache and inflammation
Managing Director of Biofuels Industry Development in South Africa, Fanie Brink, South Africa is set to go the mandatory route of setting targets for blending bio-fuels with fossil fuels in the near future, which will in turn create new markets for the fuels.
It assumes an energy intensive economy in the foreseeable future with large dependence on electricity, liquid fuel and other household energy sources.
It hints that the rapid development of Jatropha holds the key to rapid bio-energy future because it is already grown and carries fruit under dry land conditions in the identified areas of Namibia, although it is not yet domesticated. The plant is widely cultivated in Africa, India, Central America and India. It will eventually influence the whole world.
Jatropha offers a spectrum of potential uses, apart from the principle imperative of bio diesel production.
WHOLE PLANT: Erosion control, hedges and crop protection
SEED FRUIT SHELL: Burning fuel
SEED OIL: Production of bio diesel through the method explained above (esterification)
SEED CAKE: Soap production, organic fertilizer, chemical production, glycerin and biodegradable cutter bar lubricant.
Jatropa Curcas
The fruits are produced in winter when the shrubs are leafless, or it may produce several crops during the year if soil moisture is good and temperatures are sufficiently high. Each inflorescence yields a bunch of approximately 10 or more fruits. The seed becomes ripe after about two to four months.
The leaves shed during the winter and the organic material from the shed leaves enhance earth worm activity around the roots.
The following yield can be reached under cultivation.
2 500 trees per hectare on 2×2 meters
Year 1 – 250 kg/ha, seed equate to 115 kg oil
Year 2 – 1000 kg/ha seed equate to 460 kg oil
Year 3 – 5000 kg/ha seed equate to 2300 kg oil
Year 6 – 12 000 kg/ha seed equate to 5520 kg oil.
References recommend spacing of 2m x 1.5 m to 3m x 3m for plantations. Interplanting can be done with mulberry. The trees handle dryness very well and it is possible to live almost entirely of the humidity in the air.
500 – 600 mm per year is the lower limit, below it the production will be dependent on local water conditions. It will also stand for long periods without water (2 years) and then grow again when rain falls. Jatropha is seen as an invasive species and toxic, especially to children.
Freshly harvested seeds show dormancy and after ripening is necessary before the seeds can normally germinate readily without pre-treatment. The seeds should be dried to low-moisture content (5-7%) and stored in airtight containers.
A new avenue of commercial farming is opening up for rural people. A tree that yields cleaner, cheaper energy has the potential to pull thousands from the poverty trap.
For more than 50 years, rural South Africans have grown the jatropha carcus tree, known to thousands of KwaZulu-Natalians as Maluku, for medicinal purposes.
Little did they know that the tree’s seeds bear bio-diesel, with the capability to run any diesel car, truck or generator without the engine needing modification. The fuel, once extracted from the seed, is thought to produce up to 80 percent less carbon-dioxide than conventional diesel.
Charmaine Coetzee. Cell/ 0824942012
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