Biodiesel from Jatropha: Scenario of Nepal.

Er. Manish Karn

Biodiesel is the first biofuel that became known to wider audience in our country.
It is manufactured from oil or fats with the process of transesterification and
its chemical structure is very similar to mineral diesel. Oils are mixed with
sodium hydroxide and methanol or ethanol creating two products, biodiesel and
glycerol. One part of glycerol comes on every ten parts of ethanol. Biodiesel can
be used in every diesel engine when mixed with mineral diesel.

Presently lot news is heard regarding Biodiesel, and specially biodiesel from
Jatropha in Nepal. Only few weeks ago Jatropha plant was inaugurated in Bharatpur.
Jatropha became every household name in Nepal now. Everybody is positive regarding
production of biodiesel from Jatropha, as it will reduce to cut import of
Petroleum products and reduce carbon emission and pollute less.

Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees from
the family Euphorbiaceae. The name is derived from (Greek iatros = physician and
trophe = nutrition), hence the common name physic nut. Jatropha is native to
Central America [1] and has become naturalized in many tropical and subtropical
areas. As with many members of the family Euphorbiaceae, Jatropha contains
compounds that are highly toxic.
The hardy Jatropha is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds
containing 27-40% oil (average: 34.4%).
Advantages of Jatropha Curcas

The plant is preferred compared to others due to advantages including:

• Low cost seeds;
• High oil content;
• Increased safety due to higher flash point;
• Small gestation period;
• Growth on good and degraded soil;
• Growth in low and high rainfall areas;
• Does not require special expertise to farm;
• Seeds can be harvested in non-rainy season;
• Plant size makes collection of seeds more convenient; and
• Multi-plant use including production of biodiesel, soap, mosquito repellent,
and organic fertilizer.

Jatropha Curcas / Castor grows almost anywhere – even on gravelly, sandy and
saline soils. It can thrive on the poorest stony soil. It can grow even in the
crevices of rocks. The leaves shed during the winter months form mulch around the
base of the plant. The organic matter from shed leaves enhance earth-worm activity
in the soil around the root-zone of the plants, which improves the fertility of
the soil. Climatically, Jatropha Curcas / Castor are found in the tropics and
subtropics and like heat, although it does well even in lower temperatures and can
withstand a light frost. Its water requirement is extremely low and it can stand
long periods of drought by shedding most of its leaves to reduce transpiration
loss. Jatropha Curcas is also suitable for preventing soil erosion and shifting of
sand dunes. Jatropha productive lifespan is over 50 years.
Though it is said that Jatropha Curcas water requirement is low, many recent
research are quite antagonistic. A comprehensive new analysis of water use in
biofuel crop production finds that jatropha, an oil-rich plant championed for its
ability to grow in arid regions where food crops cannot, is the biggest water hog
of them all.
Researchers from the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, report in a recent
issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that jatropha
requires five times as much water per unit of energy as sugarcane and corn, and
nearly ten times as much as sugar beet--the most water-efficient biofuel crop,
according to the same study.
"The claim that jatropha doesn't compete for water and land with food crops is
complete nonsense," says study coauthor Arjen Hoekstra. The researcher says it's
true that the plant can grow with little water and can survive through periods of
drought, but to flourish, it needs good growing conditions just like any other
plant. "If there isn't sufficient water, you get a low amount of oil production,"
Hoekstra says.

Although biodiesel pollutes less than regular diesel when it comes out of a tail
pipe, the farming involved to produce crop-based Biofuels actually increases
pollution worldwide.

Biodiesel plantation means, an extra manpower, an extra land, for production of

Jatropha.
In our country where there is chronic famine, poverty and instead of farming food,
we are wasting manpower, food growing land (as no guarantee that fertile farming
land will not be used) to produce biodiesel and to convert food into fuel. And in
this globalized world, harvesting Jatropha for fuel instead of harvesting food
results in land being cleared somewhere else in the world to grow the missing
food.

Basically, Biofuels production is really a direct transformation of food into the

energy, which means that some food prices could skyrocket.

Jean Ziegler a U.N. special reporter from “Right to food” program said, in 2007,
how Biofuels production will even further increase hunger in world by claiming
that biofuel production has already increased price of some food to record levels.
Ziegler doesn’t dispute the right of the countries to produce Biofuels but nearly
suggests that “the effect of transforming hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
tones of maize, of wheat, of beans, of palm oil, into agricultural fuel is
absolutely catastrophic for the hungry people Also he added that "wheat price
doubled in one year and the price of corn quadrupled, leaving poor countries,
especially in Africa, unable to pay for the imported food needed to feed their
people". At the end he concluded that the production of Biofuels is actually the
crime against humanity.

In case of Nepal, we have practically no data about Jatropha. There are few
research work done recently.

Every country sooner or later will adopt production of Biodiesel from Jatropha,
palm Oil, Rapeseed etc, which will surely affect the price of crude oil, and
there’s no guarantee that after so hard, laborious work, we have jatropha
biodiesel more costly than diesel imported from foreign countries.
Lot of research are to be done in our country to study its impact of socio-
economic condition of farmer and overall to our country.