by Enos Shumba, et al (World Wildlife Fund for Nature)  The bio-fuel debate has largely focused on large feedstock plantations that produce products for the export market. It has not acknowledged and seriously considered the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Though there are exceptions among the archipelagoes with access to offshore oil assets — Indonesia comes to mind— but these are, in the main, exceptions to what might be described …

(INOCAS)  The production of plant oils based on oil-bearing trees such as Jatropha could provide an alternative pathway to a more sustainable plant oil production in the future. Planting oil-bearing trees can mitigate the effects of …

by  Louise Downing (Bloomberg)  SG Biofuels Inc., the green fuel biotech company working with Airbus SAS, is seeking a partner in Southeast Asia or Africa and expects to complete a cooperation deal within 180 days to expand its …

by Eriosi Nantaba (AllAfrica.com)  A private Firm African Power Initiative Limited (API) recently announced its plans and commitment to start mass production of bio diesel in Uganda with a capacity of more than 4000 litres. …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  A sit-down with Dave Elsenbast, vice president of supply chain management for Renewable Energy Group Inc.  For more than 25 years, Dave Elsenbast has been a leader in agricultural business …

(SG Biofuels/Biodiesel Magazine)  …Through the use of new genetic technologies, SGB’s scientists have revealed that the company’s germplasm collection can be divided into a number of distinct heterotic clades, or genetically related groupings of plants. In …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  Jatropha developer JOil Pte. Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding with West Africa alternative energy grower and jatropha processor Agritech Faso SA. JOil and Agritech will explore the development …

(GreenAirOnline)  Once touted as a wonder-crop that would become a staple feedstock for jet biofuels, jatropha suffered a fall from grace as yields failed to live up to overblown claims. However, California-based alternative energy crop …

by W.M.J. Achten, A. Trabucco, W.H. Maes, L.V. Verchot, R. Aerts, E. Mathijs, P. Vantomme, V.P. Singh, B. Muys  (ScienceDirect.com/Journal of Arid Environments)  Biofuels are considered as a climate-friendly energy alternative. However, their environmental sustainability is …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  It is becoming increasingly evident that, in the near-term, acute demand for aviation biofuel is going, one way or another, to result in heavy demand for jatropha and jatropha oil-based …

by Daniel C Marotta and Jennifer Coute-Marotta  (Truthout)  All names are fictitious as sources requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Anonymity and people’s  requests that no pictures be taken were prerequisites for attaining interviews. …

By Kabona Esiara (The East African)   A biodiesel project that was seen as one of Rwanda’s solutions to its high energy bill has run into trouble.
The government launched the pilot biodiesel and bioethanol production plant …

by Josef Rathbauer, Andrea Sonnleitner, Roland Pirot, Rudolf Zeller, Dina Bacovsky    (Science Direct)  This publication deals with the characterisation of Jatropha curcas seeds and the oil obtained hereof. The analyzed seeds have been harvested from hedges and …

by Gerald Kitabu  (IPP Media)  The government of Tanzania has been urged to localise biofuel commercial production by empowering small farmers in terms of training, loans and marketing.
The call was made by Tanzanian researchers and …

(Biodiesel Business Academy/EnvironmentalExpert.com/Centre for Jatropha Promotion & Biodiesel (CJP)) …The students now have the opportunity to make biodiesel from the nonfood oil . The Nonfood Biodiesel Science Kit developed by BBA scientists and education professionals. The kit is an …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  There’s only one complete region for biofuels where abundant feedstock, lack of oil & gas production, rising energy demand and supportive government policy come together — and that is Asia.
We’re …

(NewsTrackIndia)  Cuba has opened its second biodiesel plant and plans to build three more to produce green fuel from inedible plants, the state-run TV reported.
The new plant is now having trial run in the town …

by Ron Kotrba  (Biodiesel Magazine)  India-based Biodiesel Business Academy presents its calendar of events and training programs scheduled in 2013 on nonfood oil-based biofuels. The training portfolio was developed specifically to focus on the needs …

(Saudi Gazette)  Sinnar state signed a partnership with the Saudi Tala Company to produce sugar, ethanol and bio-fuel in Sinnar state from the Jatropha tree to be cultivated in an area estimated at 165,000 acres …

(The Star Online)  SETIU: The Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) has been successful in growing 6,000 ‘Jarak Pagar’ (Jatropa Curcas) trees, and now, it is ready to plant these trees on a large scale.
The …

by Sara Mojtehedzadeh  (Edmonton Journal)  Bedford Biofuels’ plantation is stalled, and along with it the company’s promise to provide jobs and cash for community development
…Though this is an arid and unforgiving area, the land surrounding Garsen …

by Jennifer Alsever (CNN Money)  …  While most of its rivals raced to commercialize the fuel, San Diego-based SG Biofuels took a different path: It hired plant geneticists. They hunkered down in the laboratory to come up …

(RSB Services Foundation/Global Clean Energy Holdings)  The RSB Services Foundation, the implementing entity of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) which has developed a global sustainability standard and certification system for biofuel production, is pleased …

by Jack Litster  (CCCI-CCIC)  When the price of agrofuel production finally became economically competitive with the high price of oil around 2005, a debate soon opened up about whether transport fuel produced from crops (such …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Brent Crude trades this past week at a transorbital $109 per barrel (West Texas Intermediate at a suborbital, if high, $85).  It puts the conventional wisdom that biofuels are too …

(La Prensa)  Given the questions that has challenged the production of biodiesel in Chiapas, and the use of this fuel in transportation Tapachulteco (Tapachula) and Conejobús (Tuxtla Gutierrez), the governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines Guerrero, …

by Bradley J. Fikes  (North County Times)  Famed genomics researcher J. Craig Venter, who is working to develop biofuels from photosynthetic algae, acknowledged this week that alternate fuels are “dead” unless the federal government mandates …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Jatropha 2.0 crude oil costs drops below Brent crude petroleum price
In California, SG Biofuels announced at Advanced Biofuels Markets that it has expanded its global network of hybrid trial and …

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  Historically, 2009 was a hard year for biofuels. Biofuel spending was down to $5.6 billion from $15.4 billion in 2008. Investments in the industry focused on cellulosic technologies and sugarcane. This …

(Deutsche Welle)  Lufthansa has stopped testing biofuel in its aircraft because it has exhausted its stocks of biosynthetic kerosene and no other reliable supplies are available. The final test flight was a long-haul service to …

by Karen E. Kline (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)  …The 150-employee company (Sapphire Energy), backed by more than $350 million in public and private funds, is a leader in a rapidly growing cluster of 40 biofuels ventures around …

(Energy Digital/MarketWire)  Global Clean Energy, Inc., continues to develop its plan to provide the most efficient feedstocks for biomass fuel production. The company has begun to provide for production of Jatropha and switch grass in rural …

by Luke Geiver (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  A team of researchers will spend the next five years assessing the social, economic and ecological impacts of bioenergy projects happening in Michigan, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Led by …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …While the economic growth in China has been drawing virtually all the headlines in recent years, the “Tiger” economies of Southeast and South Asia have been fast-growing for a long …

Planned Topics Addressed
Jatropha Market Potential

Opportunities for achieving commercial success of jatropha production
Production costs and environmental impacts
Oil characteristics
Latest status of research and development

Plantation & Cultivation (Jatropha and other feedstocks)

Improving plantation methods and productivity yields
New systems of …

(Business Wire/AlphaJet)  …Having successfully demonstrated its cost-effective catalytic process for making jet fuel, diesel and high-octane gasoline from renewable plant oils or animal fats, AliphaJet is beginning its commercial scale-up program.
…The company has launched a …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  With the US drought, food vs fuel has returned as an issue.  What alternatives are scientists, entrepreneurs developing to take us beyond the old debate?
…1. Feedstock diversification.  In biofuels, it …

(JOil) JOil (S) Pte. Ltd., a scientific bioenergy crop developer of a new generation of Jatropha, sees the potential to double the product revenue per hectare from Jatropha plantations with biomass fuel cakes and animal feed meal. This …

(World Watch Institute/Environmental News Network)  …In response to global criticisms that biofuels drive deforestation and threaten food security, Central American governments and interest groups specify that biofuel expansion will occur on “tierras ociosas”�—or vacant, unproductive …

by Michael Gubisch (FlightGlobal/Flight International)  …Between 15 July and 27 December 2011, Lufthansa deployed a newly delivered Airbus A321 (registration D-AIDG) on the route between Hamburg and Frankfurt, with one of the two International Aero …

(Expansion.com) The first biodiesel plant that uses Cuban bush inedible oilseed “Jatropha curcas”, popularly known in the island as “physic nut” began to produce today, according to local media reported.
The facility, located in the eastern …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Dire US media headlines abound: “Drought!”  What’s real, what’s hype, and what are the impacts?  More importantly, what alternatives does science give us now, and in the future, with more …

by David Cronin (New Europe Online)  …The production of biofuels is a central factor behind the grabbing of land in Africa. Yet rather than using food crops, many of the players in this murky game …

by Dr. Christoph Weber, CEO JATRO AG, Frankfurt & Mitchell Hawkins, CEO BioJet Corp, Santa Barbara, CA (JATRO/BioJet)  Biofuels provide a viable alternative to conventional fuel and enable airlines to reduce their environmental impact. Over the last …

by Margaret Ryan (AOLEnergy)  Biofuels could be a “game changer” for both military and commercial aviation, says Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Terry Yonkers, because they’re proving to have advantages over petroleum-based jet fuels that go beyond …

by Elias Ntungwe Ngalame (AllAfrica)  Biofuel production initiatives are gaining ground in Cameroon as the government seeks to reduce the Central African country’s energy deficit while fighting climate change.
Although biofuel production has not yet reached a …

CJP provides you a single platform, the best expertise to discuss and analyze the present and future dynamics of JATROPHA from a technological and socio-economic angle. All who has yet to make decision on big …

(Biodiesel Magazine/JOil)  Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory and JOil Pte. Ltd. have successfully developed genetically modified jatropha plants with high oleic acid content in seeds.
“Oleic acid is the most desirable oil component for the purpose of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …(M)ore than 30 airlines now trialing, deploying biofuels – but who’s doing what, exactly?
In Brazil, Azul Airlines announced that Amyris’s innovative renewable jet fuel sourced from Brazilian sugarcane has passed all required testing …

by Archana Jyoti (Daily Pioneer)  The Planning Commission hailed it as a future fuel and the industry projected it as a viable biofuel crop. But the Union Rural Development Ministry led by Jairam Ramesh feels otherwise.
Citing …

(Macauhub)  The first crop of jatropha of biofuel company Ceci Api Biomassa Mozambique is due to be harvested by July, the company’s chief executive told Mozambican news agency AIM.
Domercico Manfredi also said that the harvest, …

by Kristie Neo  (ChannelNewsAsia)   The world’s first genetically modified Jatropha plant can produce biodiesel faster and better.  Plans are in the pipeline to start field trials and commercialise it in three years.   With genetic modification, …

(NYDailyNews)  Rapping the rural development ministry’s land resources department for the “inordinate delay” in finalising a bio-fuels programme, a parliamentary panel has sought for the matter be placed before the cabinet at the earliest for …

by Eric Didier Karinganire (AllAfrica.com)   For some years now, there has been talk of locally producing biofuel to make the country less dependent on petrol imports. But until now, production levels are still insignificant.
Yet …

by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine)  Panama Green Fuels, an entity working to establish biodiesel infrastructure within Panama, recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the director of the country’s National School of Agriculture (IDIAP) to …

(GEM Biofuels) … Based on the internal review it is clear that, having planted very large areas of land, totalling 55,737 hectares, with Jatropha between 2007 and 2009, a lack of resources has resulted in …

by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine) …Although India’s biodiesel industry is small, it does show potential for growth. This week World Health Energy Holdings announced plans to establish algae biodiesel production in two areas of the country are …

by Gavin Lumsden (CityWire)   The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched an investigation into Sustainable AgroEnergy, a London-based company that promoted itself to Sipp investors as a specialist in renewable biofuel crops and ‘green oil’ from Asia.
According to Citywire’s New …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Sugar prices are booming, good news for producers in Brazil, India and elsewhere, but in Brazil it has created, shall we say, a certain reluctance to maximize ethanol production.
Part of …

(JOil)  • Tamil Nadu sites achieve first-year flowering in three months and first harvest in five months
• Field trials now being conducted in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia
JOil (S) Pte. Ltd., a scientific bioenergy …

by Theodore Kouadio  (AllAfrica.com)  Senegal’s government has called on the expertise of the country’s researchers in drafting a new national law to regulate the production and environmental impact of biofuels.
The law was developed in collaboration …

by Usman A. Bello (Daily Trust)  The Kogi State government has said its planned biodiesel refinery would be completed on schedule in Itobe area of the state.
Acting Governor of the state, Arc. Yomi Awoniyi said …

(CheckBioTech/JOil)  JOil (S) Pte Ltd, a scientific bioenergy crop developer of New Generation Jatropha, discussed cutting edge science and biotechnology processes that could increase the present productivity of Jatropha from the less than 1 ton …

(Pernambuco.com)  The Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) points as a solution to consolidate the biodiesel program in the country diversification of agricultural production, reducing dependence on tax incentives and lower costs of the final …

(Manila Bulletin)  The government is subjecting to fuel standard testing the jatropha biodiesel of Malaysia-based Bionas which is offering to supply what it claims to possibly become the world’s first jatropha biodiesel.
The Department of Energy …

(Dow Jones Newswires/Fox Business)  China’s aviation regulator has begun deliberating China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s (SNP) application to produce aviation biofuel commercially, the refiner said Wednesday, while a senior aviation official said the country hopes that nearly …

by Lori Ranson (FlightGlobal)  Successful commercial biofuel flights operated by US carriers in late 2011 were underpinned by an understanding that price and supply chain infrastructure remain the big hurdles to creating a viable full-scale …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  New reports from Bloomberg and the USDA focus on 2018 as a critical year for commercial-scale, affordable aviation fuels
In New York, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said that jatropha-based fuels were the …

(Macau Hub)  Portuguese group Galp Energia plans to head up a project for second generation biofuel produced using cultivated jatropha in Mozambique, the Portuguese press reported.
The project, which is projected to cost 2 million euros, …

by Graham Warwick (Aviation Week)  …But as 2012 progresses, industry is looking to governments to capitalize on the rapid technical progress made in approving bio-derived jet fuels by providing the funding support necessary to scale …

by Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman (Wired)  The Navy is hoping to one day run a huge chunk of its fleet on biofuels. So the Navy’s advanced researchers — and their partners at the U.S. Department …

by Bryan Sims (Biodiesel Magazine)  Is there sufficient supply of feedstock to support the build-out of a 6 billion gallon biodiesel industry over the next decade?
…If the industry stands a chance competing with Big Oil …

(PRNewsWire/Moneylife)  Scientific findings and process on biofuel crop presented in a paper delivered at INSULA (International Scientific Council for Island Development) / RSB (Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels), Conference in UNESCO, Paris
JOil (S) Pte Ltd, a scientific …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In California, SG Biofuels has completed a $17 million Series B financing led by Thomas, McNerney & Partners with participation from Finistere Ventures and current investors Flint Hills Resources and …

(Pangea/World of Bioenergy)   Social and environmental benefits of next-generation biofuels, mainly cellulosic ethanol, Algae fuels, Drop in fuels, and biobutanol, are fuelling its rapid growth momentum, says RNCOS.
According to our recent report, “Global Biofuel …

by Pavel Molchanov (Raymond James)  As energy investors know well, it is much better to own the oil than to refine it. In other words, the bulk of the value is in the upstream of the …

(AllAfrica.coom)  Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) has this year projected to produce 600,000 litres of bio-diesel from crude jatropha oil to meet its own fuel requirements.
The company will next month start blending the fuel from jatropha …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …But the New Agriculture has arisen in recent years, with new solutions to the old dilemma: how do you produce, and afford, and haul, and utilize enough feedstock to make …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Nigeria, Bloomberg and several local outlets are reporting that the Nigerian government has signed a $2.55 billion development deal with Global Biofuels, to construct 15 integrated biorefineries throughout the West …

by Emeka Ugwuanyi (The Nation)  As part of contribution to developing and using renewable energy as against the current dependence on fossil  fuels, the  Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) said it has given out $695 million as …

(PR-USA.net)     The project will be engaged in jatropha production and biodiesel processing venture in the Sierra Madre Mountain Range of the Philippines. The target aggregate plantation area is 110,000 hectares divided into clusters …

by Garry Robertson   (Carrentals.co.uk)  …In fact, this carrier will now be the first airline in all of Asia to undertake a commercial passenger flight using only biofuel. Reports show that this flight will be available …

by Achten, W. M. J., and L. V. Verchot (Ecology and Society)  Biofuels are receiving growing negative attention. Direct and/or indirect land-use changes that result from their cultivation can cause emissions due to carbon losses in …

(AMG/MarketWire)  AMG Bioenergy Resources Holdings Ltd. (the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE:ABG), a Canadian publicly traded company, wishes to provide an update on the progress of its acquisition of a 133 hectare jatropha plantation and a 201 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Biofuels Digest announced the winners of its “Day in the Life of Biofuels” photo contest, and published the winning entries.
…Grand Prize and First Prize winners have been published at biofuelsdigest.com, …

(SunStar)  Senator Francis Pangilinan has called on the Department of Agriculture to look into the P1 billion that the government lost to an abandoned project to produce biodiesel from jatropha plants.
The Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative …

(Reuters)  India-based biofuel producer Nandan Cleantec expects to grow sales by at least 25 percent every year till 2014-15, on the back of strong demand for its high yielding variety of oilseeds, a top executive …

(Soya Tech)  Indonesia’s Confederation of Primary Cooperatives Association (Inkud) is teaming up with Taiwan in developing jatropha curcas-based fuel, its vice president director Yusri Suhud said.
“We are cooperating with Taiwan to develop jatropha curcas as …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  As POET lands a record biomass harvest in prep for a 2013 cellulosic ethanol launch, the Digest looks at stover, jatropha, miscanthus, switchgrass, MSW, wood and animal residue.  Are costs …

(UK.IBTimes)   A biodiesel plant that’s completely energy self-sufficient has been approved for the Oakland, California area.
Oakland-based Viridis Fuels won a long-term contract from the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) to build a 20 million …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  United and Solazyme, Alaska and Dynamic Fuels hook up, as producers scramble to make fuel, raise cash, ratchet down costs. Will producers scale, or fail?
…United Airlines will operate the first …

(Mission NewEnergy)  Mission NewEnergy Limited, a global provider of environmentally sustainable biofuels, is pleased to announce that it has materially completed its 2011 Jatropha tree planting season, adding 40,264 new acres and 14,331 new Jatropha …

by John C.K. Daly (http://oilprice.com)   On 28 October Air China conducted its first trial flight of a passenger jet powered by a mix of biofuel and traditional aviation fuel.
The Jet A-1 biofuel kerosene used in …

(Costa Rica News) This has been the conclusion of the videoconference “Presentation of the Jatropha curcas L. network for investigation, development, and innovation in the production of biodiesel in Latin America and the Caribbean,” organized …

by Damian Carrington (The Guardian/The Observer)  The collapse of Sun Biofuels has left hundreds of Tanzanians landless, jobless, and in despair for the future
“People feel this is like the return of colonialism,” says Athumani Mkambala, chairman …

(PR NewsWire)  Air China, Boeing , and Chinese and U.S. aviation energy partners today conducted China’s first sustainable biofuel flight. The two-hour mainland flight from Beijing Capital International Airport was witnessed by officials from both countries and …

by Finnigan Wa Simbeye    (AllAfrica.com)  An ambitious biodiesel project which was allocated over 8,000 hectares of land by Kisarawe district officials in 2008 is in trouble.
Employees and casual workers of Sun Biofuels Plc, told Business …

by John Lourenze Poquiz (Mayaya Business Insight)  The government is set to abandon its program of promoting jatropha as an alternative fuel source, an official said.
Energy Secretary Jose Rena Almendras said the Philippine National Oil …

(Agrimoney.com)  D1 Oils put its hands up to out-of-pocket investors in jatropha, admitting that the once-lauded oilseed had been a “disappointment”, as the group unveiled – yet another – strategy shift.
Steven Rudofsky, the D1 Oils chairman, acknowledged …