Quote :

"Jatropha, an ugly, fast-growing and poisonous weed that has been used as a remedy for constipation, may someday power your car. The plant, resilient to pests and resistant to drought, produces seeds with up to 40 per cent oil content that when crushed can be burned in a diesel car while the residue can be processed into biomass for power plants. Although jatropha has been used for decades by farmers in Africa as a living fence because its smell and taste repel grazing animals, the New York Times reports that jatropha may replace biofuels like ethanol that require large amounts of water, fertilizer, and energy, making their environmental benefits limited. Jatropha requires no pesticides, little water other than rain and no fertilizer beyond the nutrient-rich seed cake left after oil is pressed from its nuts. Poor farmers living close to the equator are planting jatropha on millions of acres spurred on by big oil companies like British Petroleum that are investing in jatropha cultivation."

From slashdot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatropha
http://tinyurl.com/2ql2o3

So apparently it produces 10x's as much biofuel as corn, requires little to no fertilizer or water, and can be grown pretty much anywhere.

And oil companies are already investing in it.

[Edited on September 10, 2007 at 5:18 PM. Reason : .]

9/10/2007 5:17:31 PM

interesting

9/10/2007 5:26:56 PM

^ second that...never heard of it. sounds like it could be a decent alternative to ethanol.

9/10/2007 5:30:06 PM

Awesome.

9/10/2007 5:58:21 PM

So since it's poisonous and stinky... Does that mean the vehicle's exhaust will have any poisonous or stinkier-than-normal qualities?

9/10/2007 6:27:17 PM

so if i smoke it, will it make me run fast[er] with less effort?

9/10/2007 6:52:25 PM

wait, the seed oil can be burnt in a diesel engine without the need for cracking? I doubt it, but if it can be then we may have a winner; if only someone would tell us what the plants energy conversion rate is (8% for sugarcane, 2% for corn, and 0.014% for maple trees).

9/10/2007 7:03:00 PM

Quote :

"so if i smoke it, will it make me run fast[er] with less effort?"

no but it may kill you

9/10/2007 8:48:17 PM

That's pretty neat, and maybe it'll help with ethanol production, but I'm still placing my bets on algae-based fuels.

9/10/2007 11:28:07 PM

I'm placing my bets on the precipitous fall of civilization, but algae-based fuels come in a close second.

[Edited on September 10, 2007 at 11:44 PM. Reason : ]

9/10/2007 11:44:36 PM

whats the O/U on economic collapse?

9/11/2007 12:32:58 AM

im investing in buggy whips now, get a jump on the market

9/11/2007 1:23:56 AM

"O/U"?

9/11/2007 1:36:30 AM

over/under


You people who are bringing up ethanol apparently have no idea what you are talking about. Two entirely different processes, creating entirely different fuels used to power entirely different engines. It's not an alternative, nor is it a way to "help" with ethanol production.

This Jatropha plant is just one in a long line of plants which can be harvested to produce vegetable oil. I doubt that it has a higher yield per acre than the oil palm, or coconuts for that matter. But maybe the fact that it is poisonous makes it more suited for fuel production than as an edible oil.

[Edited on September 11, 2007 at 2:10 AM. Reason : 2]

9/11/2007 2:10:02 AM

And I doubt we want to be purposefully planting and harvesting millions of acres of the stuff; it is poisonous afterall, how are we going to dispose of the nasty parts without inflicting danger or damage upon others?

Quote :

"It's not an alternative"

All internal combustion engine technologies are in direct competition. We can build diesel engines to go in compact cars, we can build gasoline engines to drive mac-trucks. If we find a fuel that is cheap that runs in a diesel engine then gasoline engines will mostly fall out of favor.

9/11/2007 9:38:36 AM

Quote :

"So since it's poisonous and stinky... Does that mean the vehicle's exhaust will have any poisonous or stinkier-than-normal qualities?"

Gasoline is poisonous and stinky, too...we wouldn't be any worse off, I guess.

9/11/2007 10:44:48 AM

so, jatropha is just like cannabis

except it doesn't get you high

and it's poisonous

neat

9/11/2007 11:48:41 AM

Quote :

"oil is pressed from its nuts"

9/11/2007 11:49:55 AM

the real benefit of jatropha is that, as stated, it can be grown basically anywhere (and used to make bio-diesel, not a gasoline substitute). so it is definitely a good opportunity for countries, like india, that consume a lot of diesel but have a climate too harsh for palm. possibly even an option for u.s. diesel, but it's not gonna make an impact of the ethanol/gasoline market.

9/11/2007 3:34:04 PM