In a proud moment for the Indian aviation industry, a blend of biofuel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) was used to propel a SpiceJet Bombardier Q-400 flight between Dehradun and Delhi. SpiceJet’s Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh said the 43-minute flight was a technological demonstration that bio jet fuel could be used in flights, and claimed … Read More

In Zimbabwe, after focusing on R&D for the past dozen years, the government is jumping back into jatropha as a solution for fuel shortages with a new facility and 6,000 ha of plantations. Finealt Engineering, part of the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, has gotten biodiesel production costs down to 97 cents per liter but … Read More

The term “advanced biofuel” is a bit misleading because any biofuel can be advanced as long as it is made from sustainable feedstock. The definition of a sustainable feedstock is not well developed, but in general, a feedstock is considered sustainable if it: Is available in large enough quantity to meet a reasonable proportion of … Read More

The first and most important advantage of MHF is that it is generally cheaper than biodiesel and has the potential to be cheaper than diesel fuel. Two factors have significant impact on the price of biodiesel: first, the price of the raw material, which is plant oil; and second, the prices of the chemicals used … Read More

MHF is produced by physically blending and microemulsifying various ratios of plant oil with diesel fuel in the presence of an additive, which could be composed of cetane enhancers, viscosity reducers and/or emulsifiers. A blend of 30% plant oil and 70% diesel fuel is called MHF30 while a blend of 50% plant oil and 50% … Read More

The process of biodiesel production involves two phases. The first phase is the extraction of crude oil from seeds and the second is the transesterification of the crude oil into biodiesel. The biodiesel extraction process involves the use of machines to extract the oil from the seed. This produces crude jatropha oil, and hull and … Read More

Under Calauan, Laguna, Philippine conditions, tubang bakod (the local name of Jatropha curcas L.) bears harvestable fruit from April to July. Hence the harvesting for jatropha fruit is priming (harvesting the fruit as they mature). Matured fruits are yellowish and turn blackish as they dry. As presented in Table 1, four samples represented the conditions … Read More

Plant’s description. Jatropha curcas L. is found throughout the Philippines. In fact, different regions have their own common name for jatropha. In the Tagalog region, it is known as tubang bakod, tuba and sambo. Among the Bicolanos, it is called tuba and tuba-tuba; in Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija, it is called tagumbao; tawa-tawa in Ilocos … Read More

Jatropha is a genus of about 175 succulent plants, shrubs and trees from the family Euphorbiaceae, subfamily Crotonoideae, and tribe Jatropheae. There are at least four important species, namely, J. curcas, J. gossrifolia, J. podarica, and J. multifada. It was botanist Carl Von Linne who first classified the plants in 1753 and gave the botanical … Read More