High interest in exotic feeds for biodiesel production

05 June 2006 08:16  [Source: ICIS news]

BANGKOK (ICIS news)--BP has started a biofuels demonstation project in India to produce biodiesel from the jatropha plant, a company official said on Monday.

 

Speaking at the Biofuels Markets Asia conference, BP Fuels Management Group fuel policy manager Paul Benett said BP started the project in association with Tata Energy Research Institute. It will spend about $9.4m on the project over the next five years.

 

The project involves cultivating the jatropha plant over 8,000 hectares of plantation in India, with production likely to be around around 9m litres of biodiesel a year. They also hope to study the environmental and social impacts of using this feedstock for biodiesel production.

 

Jatropha, unlike palm oil, is currently not used in the food chain. Jatropha has been used in applications like pharmaceutical production in smaller volumes. This has raised interest in the little known plant around the world, including India, Africa and Australia.

By: Anu Agarwal
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