Hello Myles There are good yield tables here: http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html Vegetable oil yields, characteristics
They're low averages, you can do much better than that with a small plot. For other oil crops, try these: NewCrop SearchEngine at the Center for New Crops & Plant Products at Purdue University -- Search for "oil". Results: "The following pages containing 'oil' were found -- hits 1-20 of 200". Results are hyperlinked to detailed factsheets. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/SearchEngine.html Plants For A Future -- Database Search -- See "Search by Use - Select any of the following uses. Or select none and use the plant criteria below." Select "Other Use" - oil. Results: "Other Use: Oil (460)". Results are hyperlinked to detailed factsheets. http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/D_search.html We've hardly begun to scratch the surface of the potential, either of what to grow or of how to grow it (them). The "experts" still think in terms of how much land will be needed to replace existing fossil-fuel use via industrialized monocropping, then they find it's "too much" and abandon the whole thing, hopeless. So much for topdown-think. Did they think of weeds, and where weeds grow? - among the very many other things they didn't think of James A. Duke's excellent "Handbook of Energy Crops" details 194 crops, also very far from exhaustive. Including Euphorbia lathyris, which is here: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Euphorbia_lathyris.html Euphorbia lathyris But yield isn't everything. Jatropha curcus is a high oil-yielding multi-purpose tree, at 1,590 kg/ha of oil, but it's been found it doesn't yield much in India. If it's something that grows locally like a weed, as you say Euphorbia lathyris does, then it will perform well, and, very important, the local farmers will be familiar with it, though they might need their attitude changed a bit. What local people know almost always fares better than something new brought in from outside, no matter how much it might yield. Best Keith >I don't know if this has been brought up already or not, but while hemp is >indeed a plant which provides fiber, oil and other uses, its oil content >relative to other biofuel crop alternatives, well, sucks. > >According to Tickell's From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank, a hemp crop can >yield oil at about 300kg/hectare. Compared to Rapeseed (nearly 1000) hemp >doesn't look too convincing as an oil crop unless both the oil and fiber >yields combined outproduce the alternatives. One potential energy plant not >investigated since the 1980's that I can tell is Euphorbia Lathyris (aka >Mole or Gopher Plant). According to Tickell and other sources, the Mole >plant produces more oil (approx. 1200kg/ha) mass/hectare than ANY OTHER >plant crop other than trees and bushes such as castor bean. The bean itself >is said to yield 50% oil content. It grows like crazy virtually anywhere. >Hemp is not as easy to grow and as the literature indicates, produces less >than a third the oil of the alternatives. > >Still, cannabis should be free. It's hypocrital prohibition and enforcement >over that of the freely grown common yard plant Papaver Somniferum (Opium >Poppy ---also yielding more kg oil/hectare than hemp) will sometime make a >hysterically funny movie....oh, yeah, it already exists: Reefer Madness... > >-Myles Twete, Portland ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Rent DVDs Online-No late fees! Try Netflix for FREE! http://us.click.yahoo.com/XfSp7B/XlOFAA/46VHAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
