Ive read this over Sun Star news and get into interest. How about we will pursue this Biodiesel? This could generate income to our community, isnt it? I've searched over the net and find this JATROPHA very intellegent. here are some link that ive searched: http://www.jatrophabiodiesel.org/
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Cebu urged to produce biodiesel
By Nancy R. Cudis
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
IF farmers will be receptive to planting jatropha or intercropping it in their sites and will learn how to take care of the crops while the government expands jatropha plantations, Cebu may get its own supply of biodiesel.
If jatropha will be grown in the targeted 5,000 hectares within the year, the crops that take some three years to mature will be able to produce 15,000 metric tons of oil, which Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC)-Alternative Fuels Corp. president and chief executive officer Peter Anthony Abaya said could be a major contributor to Cebu’s economy.
Apart from positioning jatropha as a potential replacement for coconut as biodiesel, PNOC is also studying the plant’s potential as “supplemental coal” for coal-fired power plants because its seed cake has oil content.
“A coal-fired power plant will have to use coal. Most likely, they can use the husks or biomass of jatropha, which has almost the same (component) as coal and I know it will be cheaper than coal. We already tested it in coal-fired power plants with Napocor and Tokyo Electric,” Abaya said.
He added that PNOC will continue its research and development studies on jatropha, which promises more income for farmers since it is a multi-product crop.
Its potential to be a fertilizer as well as its pharmaceutical value is still unexplored, according to PNOC.
Abaya said that when one extracts the oil from jatropha seeds, the result would be crude oil that needs to be filtered before it can be used in power plants, generators, slow-moving equipment and lamps, among others.
Jatropha (locally known as tubatuba) is a drought-resistant plant growing well on marginal or poor land.
“To transform the oil into biodiesel and use it for car engines, one needs to take it to a biodiesel refinery. That would be another big investment,” Abaya told reporters after he led the inauguration of the 2.5-hectare jatropha nursery in Medellin, Cebu—the first in the Visayas—last Tuesday.
Cheaper
He believes, however, that mixing jatropha with diesel would be cheaper than using coconut, “which is more expensive than the diesel itself.”
“After finding out that oil extracted from jatropha works well with engines, we’re seeing jatropha to be about 30 to 40 percent cheaper than actual diesel. When you have a high blend of jatropha biodiesel blended with diesel, prices will go down even if diesel escalates and goes beyond P60 or P70,” he said.
PNOC, he added, will have a program to keep the prices of biodiesel stable so that they will not move with the prices of petroleum.
Oil companies are presently forced to blend coconut with diesel because it is the only thing available for biodiesel.
“But the law defines coconut biodiesel as a transitory or transition feedstock. It is only waiting for its replacement. What it is
waiting for is jatropha, which is cheaper, has good characteristics and reduces air pollution,” Abaya added.
He cited that the particulate matter in the air in Metro Manila significantly dropped by 25 percent since the implementation of the Biofuels Law in April 2007, which mandated the blending of one percent of biodiesel in all diesel products sold in the country.
Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:20 am
