Daimler, Bayer and Archer Daniels Midland to pursue jatropha-based biodiesel in research effort

In Germany, Daimler, Archer Daniels Midland, and Bayer CropScience have announced a project to develop production and quality standards for Jatropha-based biodiesel.

Bayer CropScience intends to develop herbicides, insecticides and fungicides for Jatropha cultivators, while ADM’s interest results from its biodiesel production operations. Daimler is exploring the potential of jatropha biodiesel as an automotive fuel.

Jatropha continues to be the subject of an intensive development effort by the biodiesel industry owing to its production cost and the fact that it is a non-edible plant. D1 Oils has been active in developing jatropha plantations in Africa in a joint venture with BP. Mission Biofuels has been active in setting up joint ventures with villages for jatropha cultivation in India. Several Spanish firms are exploring jatropha cultivation in the Philippines, while an extensive development effort is underway in Western China using arid lands unsuitable for food cultivation.

Overall, Chinese jatropha cultivation will be expanded from 66,000 acres to 660,000 acres. The expansion is planned for Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, which have the most suitable climate for jatropha cultivation.

The expansion takes place under the auspices of China’s Green Poverty in Reduction program which was launched in 2006. The $8.5 billion project is a joint venture between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Commerce. The project aims to develop biofuels and other eco-friendly projects in China’s poorer western provinces.

In the Philippines, tests by the Technological University of the Philippines and Chemrez Technologies have shown that jatropha biodiesel from PNOC Alternative Fuels meets both US and European standards.

Tests have now expanded the pool of jatropha hybrids to six candidates that meet EN 14214 (Europe) and ASTM D6751 (US). The seeds were provided by PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corporation, the biofuels division of state-owned oil company PNOC. TUP was responsible for oil extraction, while Chemrez performed the esterization process that converts the oil to biodiesel.

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