Fred,
Apparently this is a tall shrub or small tree - with lots of nuts
used for fuel and medicine in Africa and Asia. Said to cure both
cancer and hemmoroids <g> so if you plant an acre of it - and it
doesn't work out for powering your car - hey, you set up a small
patent-medicine business <g> or save a bundle on "Preparation H"
<g>
Curiously - the common name is "Physic nut" which might make it
perfect for Vortex
Getting a little more serious - "According to Gaydou et al (1982),
seed yields approach 6-8 MT (metric tonnes)/ha with ca 37% oil.
They calculate that such yields could produce the equivalent of
2,100-2,800 liters fuel oil/ha .
OK that would be about 200 gallons per acre - mas o menos - which
is about what would be needed per year per automobile for the
average in the USA (15,000 miles/yr) - which is calculated based
on proven results of the hybrid-diesel with HydroBooster (onboard
hydrogen generator). Adding even small amounts of hydrogen to
diesel combustion seems to be especially synergetic.
Unfortunately - this shrub is probably not frost-tolerant - now.
If some dedicated biochemist got to work on bioenegineering it
however - how knows? A brief googling for 'Frost tolerance'
indicates that the plant genes for this have been identified - so
perhaps bioengineering it is not too far removed from
practicality?
Jones
