(TheBioenergySite)  Daimler AG has started a new project for the cultivation of the biodiesel raw material jatropha in the south of India and the seedlings for the first 100 hectares have been planted. 
The company is …

by Craig Gima (Star Bulletin)  If the vision of father and son farmers Christian and James Twigg-Smith becomes reality, acres of now-fallow sugar cane land will be growing crops again.  But rather than producing food, …

by Aaron Pickering (KOLD) …The experiment, National Lab Pathfinder-Cells 3, is aimed at learning whether microgravity can help jatropha curcas plant cells grow faster to produce biofuel, or renewable fuel derived from biological matter. Jatropha …

China’s poisonous jatropha shrub is showing promise as biofuel and could boost the country’s efforts to reduce dependency on imported crude oil.
In the past, farmers planted the poisonous perennial only as a barrier to ward …

SG Biofuels, a sustainable plant oil company specializing in the development of Jatropha as a low-cost, sustainable source of oil, today announced the launch of JMax 100, a proprietary cultivar of Jatropha optimized for growing …

by Peter Sur (West Hawaii Today)  A new biodiesel plant that will produce 2.6 million gallons a year is planned for Keaau. …Now an undeveloped property, a little more than a year from now the …

(TheBioenergySite)   Daimler AG has started a new project for the cultivation of the biodiesel raw material jatropha in the south of India and the seedlings for the first 100 hectares have been planted.
 
The company …

(Earth Times)  UK-based Carbon Credited Farming congratulated NASA on the successful launch of the Endeavour Space Shuttle today. It blasted off from Kennedy Space Center taking with it new scientific experiments, including a study of …

by Melody M. Aguiba (Manila Bulletin)  A P100-million Vehicle Testing Research Laboratory (VTRL) has been put up to test the technical viability of the jatropha methyl ester (JME) which has so far gone through successful …

by Patrick Rial (Bloomberg)  Toyota Tsusho Corp., the trading affiliate of Toyota Motor Corp., plans to start growing jatropha next year as it bets that higher crop yields and oil prices will make the plant …

Joelle Dent (Biofuels Digest)  In India, a variety of reports have been published on the medicinal properties of jatropha curcus, most recently a report in the African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology that found that …

by Jim Lane  (Biofuels Digest) In Australia, Jatoil announced a joint venture to develop high-value crops that will be planted alongside its oilseed bearing jatropha trees, resulting in a dual income stream to boost returns from …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In California, jatropha pioneer SG Biofuels announced a strategic alliance with Life Technologies Corporation, a provider of innovative life science solutions, to advance the development of Jatropha as a sustainable …

Mission NewEnergy Limited (“Mission”) a biodiesel refiner and one of the world’s largest Jatropha plantation companies by acreage announced that it has entered into a binding five-year biodiesel Supply Agreement with Valero Marketing and Supply …

by Halima Abdallah  (East African)   The National Forestry Research Institute has embarked on a project to test the viability of biodiesel from jatropha, a drought resistant crop.

According to a senior researcher at the institute, Dr …

by Robert P. Walzer (New York Times) 
A Brazilian start-up is testing the possibility of implementing a large-scale biofuels project using jatropha, a family of hardy, succulent plants.
The company, BioVentures Brasil, is getting $1 million from …

by Joel Hood (Chicago Tribune)  Some time ago, Brian Sievers picked up a crazy notion that one simple idea might just change the world. So for the last two school years, the popular science teacher …

(AllAfrica Editorial)  … Rwanda entered a groundbreaking agreement with two international firms Eco-fuels Global LLC, from the United States and Eco Positive Ltd from the UK.  The two firms will invest $250 million to grow Jatropha …

Published by Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Jatropha Production Technology gives straight-forward answers to frequently asked questions about cultivating and using jatropha curcas for commercial applications.  READ MORE

While it is hard to untangle the impact of the global financial downturn from general disenchantment with jatropha itself, it is fair to say that the investment gotten way ahead of the plant science!
But if …

Biofuel Africa Ltd. has begun commercial production of jatropha oil, the first company in West Africa to move from growing and selling jatropha fruits and seeds to production and sale of jatropha oil on a …

by Joelle Brink (Biofuels Digest)  Despite the Indian Government’s official go-slow policy on Jatropha, several Indian states are now planting the crop in a big way. These are not the old style monoculture plantations that …

(CCTV) After producing aircraft components for Boeing for more than two decades, China is expected to become the US airplane manufacturer’s research and development (R&D) partner for environmentally friendly technologies that will make the aviation industry …

(Discover)  …(A)recent series of articles from Nature News feels like a public service, as the articles investigate the scientific and economic state of affairs for four different kinds of biofuels.  
The first article focused on the …

(UPI)  The Egyptian government is interested in cultivating plants with biofuel potential.  The Egyptian state Wikalat Al-Anbaa’ Al-Sharq Al-’awsat news agency reported Saturday that the jatropha plant is of particular interest to the country’s Ministry …

(Time)  Each of Burma’s states and divisions was ordered to dedicate around 500,000 acres (202,000 hectares) to physic-nut (jatropha) cultivation, pressuring many ordinary citizens into a massive forced-planting campaign, according to human-rights groups. … Puzzlingly, however, …

by Nick Wadhams/Kibwezi  (Time)  Everyone in Kibwezi, a village in southeastern Kenya parched by four years of drought, remembers the promises. It all started in 2000, when the government started preaching the word about a …

by  Amy R. Remo  (Philippine Daily Inquirer)  Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. has dropped its alternative fuels operations, citing the problems it encountered with its pilot jatropha project.  “We found out early in the game that …

(M&C Business)  Taiwan’s state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) signed an agreement Wednesday to plant 100,000 hectares of crops for biofuels in Indonesia.  … Under the MOU, in the next five years, CPC is due to …

The study “Jatropha! – A socio-economic pitfall for Mozambique” prepared by UNAC and JA for Swiss Aid (referred in the following to as Swiss Aid Study) provides a very one-sided and negative picture of the …

In Honduras, BEI International has demonstrated its mechanical harvesting of jatropha at Agroipsa Farm in Choluteca, Honduras this month, harvesting 550 hectares. “If your field conditions are accommodating you can harvest about one hectare per …

by Happy Lazaro (Arusha Times)  The United States of America has given Tanzania Tsh.6.5 billion (US Dollars 5.4 million) for development of Jatropha farming in rural areas.  The American government issued the money through its …

(Reuters) Egypt plans to expand the cultivation of the jatropha plant to produce biofuels, the state news agency said.  The agency quoted an Agriculture Ministry official as stating that 200 feddans (84 hectares) in the …

(Business Standard)  Emami Biotech, a part of the Rs 2,000-crore Emami Group, will invest Rs 400 crore in a plantation project over five years in Oromia in Ethiopia. The company will engage in plantation of …

(Discover)  The oil-rich and weedy plant jatropha has been hailed as the most promising source of biofuel on the planet, and one airline has already begun testing a jatropha-derived fuel in its jumbo jets. But …

by Eliza Strickland  (Discover) Can a tough and weedy shrub solve all of our energy problems and stop runaway climate change?  Don’t be ridiculous—of course it can’t. But that, briefly, was the hype surrounding Jatropha …

byDavid Biello   (Yale Environment 360)    Biofuels – made from algae and non-food plants – are emerging as a potentially viable alternative to conventional jet fuels. Although big challenges remain, the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could …

Ag-Oil Announces Plan to Build and Operate a Pilot-Scale Non-Food Oilseed Biodiesel Production Facility and Algae-based Integrated Biorefinery Ag-Oil, has announced its plan to work with United Environment and Energy (UEE), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), …

Dr. Charles Fishel, Chairman of Abundant Biofuels Corporation, noted that “There are about 100 biodiesel refineries operating below capacity and another 47 idle refineries in the United States, alone.” To help solve this problem, Abundant …

by Robert Ndong, Mireille Montrejaud-Vignoles, Oliver Saint Girons, Benoit Gabrielle, Roland Pirot, marjorie Domergue and Caroline Sablayrolles (Global Change Biology Bioenergy)   In recent years, liquid biofuels for transport have benefited from significant political support due to …

by Rudy A. Fernandez, Checkbiotech      Rural households can increase their income by growing jatropha.  Attesting to this is a study done by the University of the Philippines Los Baños-College of Forestry and Natural Resources …

Jatropha has been labeled the most likely crop for future biofuels. However, it suffers from low seed yield and high plant growth. A comprehensive series of trials has been conducted in Indonesia using AuStar’s  paclobutrazol to …

Green Gold Ray Energies, Inc., aims to double its jatropha crude oil output by 2011 through continuous increase yields of jatropha feedstocks, while the company increases its jatropha plantations. The jatropha plantations are expanding from …

Mexico and countries across Central American have great potential to grow their biofuels industries as governments recognize the opportunity as a chance to stimulate economic growth in rural areas. Biofuels Markets Mexico & Central America …

Following highly successful editions in Bangkok, Singapore and New Delhi, the 4th annual Biofuels Markets & Jatropha Asia will take place in Jakarta.  Over 40 leading biofuels and jatropha thought leaders will provide expert insight …

In California, SG Biofuels announced that it has identified multiple strains of cold tolerant Jatropha capable of thriving in climates outside the crop’s traditional subtropical habitat.  The strains are included among thousands of variations of …

Gold Star Biofuels a subsidiary of Gold Star Farms Ltd., is cultivating five million acres of land in Ghana to plant jatropha for the production of biofuels for export.  According to the firm it has …

Ghana is becoming the Jatropha centre in Africa south of the Sahara. The attraction which the country has as a welcoming place for investors interested in the wonder plant, Jatropha which hopefully, would be the …

Katie Howell:  Jet fuels derived from algae, camelina and jatropha — plants that pack an energy punch, are not eaten as food and do not displace food crops — could be approved and replacing petroleum …

Biofuels Digest reports that in Ethiopia, Ardent Energy Group announced an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MOARD) of Ethiopia to transfer 15,000 hectares, approximately 37,000 acres, to AEG for the purpose …