A couple of new papers on ethanol:
http://www.card.iastate.edu/publications/DBS/PDFFiles/09wp488.pdf
http://www.card.iastate.edu/publications/DBS/PDFFiles/09wp487.pdf
> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:51:17 -0700
> Subject: [Global Change: 3179] Re: Strudy shows biofuels have no value and
> are a waste of money
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
>
>
> Jatropha (only one species of that genus) was discovered in
> Central America. The small-holders there found it
> advantageous to surround their gardens with Jatropha
> plantings because it is poisonous; pests won't go through
> hedges of it to eat the crops.
>
> For this reason it also became popular for small holders in
> Vietnam; possibly elsewhere but I have no knowledge.
>
> It produces oil seeds and eventually it was noticed that the
> resulting vegatable oil can be burnt for (1)cooking fires
> (2)modified diesel motor or (3)easily refomulated into
> biodiesel for unmodified diesel engines. As the price of
> fossil fuels went through the roof, the economies of
> developing countries were badly damaged; as a result some
> rather large Jatropha projects have been started. In the
> countries I know about the small-holders can press and sell
> the Jatropha oil at the processing plant for the same price
> as from the nearby plantation; this provides a cash crop to
> what might well othrwise be a subsistence farmer.
>
> As for Haiti, just now they can neither feed themselves nor
> have enough fuel for even cooking. Converting most of the
> land, all barren, to producing Jatropha is feasible. It may
> take a very long time before the destroyed soils, most of
> Haiti, are able to grow enough food of the Haitians to feed
> themselves; I am not sure about that but I am sure that after
> last summer hurricanes, Haiti needs considerable help to
> become self-sufficient; Jatropha will grow on their wrecked
> hills.
>
> I have further read of two successful projects in India
> where, in each case, one or a few villages agree to grow some
> Jatropha and take the oil to a central location where it is
> burnt to generate some electricty. For one of these projects
> this is enough so that the homes in the co-operative each
> have a single electric light for 3 hours in the evening and
> also street lighting for 3.5 hours.
>
> Jatropha tolerates degraded soils and does not require much
> water. So far, at least, nobody seems to have found a need
> to apply chemical fertilizers to Jatropha shrubs AFAIK.
> >
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