17/4/05 - The rising prices of traditional fuel and a government policyto promote alternative energy provide an opportunity for British D1 OilsPlc to produce biodiesel from Jatropha (saboo dum), which can grow innortheastern Thailand.

D1 has developed a portable refinery technology to produce biodiesel forthe UK transport industry. It has called on the Thai government for helpin promoting Jatropha, a raw material for biofuel refining.

The company hopes the government will float diesel prices, which wouldmake its proposed biodiesel project viable, according to D1 managingdirector Mark Quinn.

Jatropha is a highly diverse plant, which always contains a milky sapirritating to humans, and often has flowers. Varieties can look like acactus, an extremely leafy plant or a tree.

Mr Quinn said the company, in collaboration with Chamnan Chutkaew, alecturer at Kasetsart University, had genetically modified the plant toproduce a higher quality of the Jatropha oil, increase yields and make thevariety more durable against drought. Research and development took placeat plantations established in 24 provinces, all in the Northeast.

Jatropha, which grows in several areas of Thailand, is highly resistant todrought, and thrives in arid areas. The plant produces oil-bearing seedswithin six months of planting.

The price of Jatropha seeds is unlikely to vary, because the plant isinedible, while demand for biodiesel is increasing continuously.

Mr Quinn said it took a long time to find suitable families of Jatrophafor growing in the Northeast.

The likely biodiesel formula would be 10% Jatropha and 90% regular diesel.The product would be commercially viable if diesel fuel were sold locallyat the true market price, instead of being subsidised by around three bahta litre, the company says.

D1 says it can refine up to five million litres of Jatropha oil per yearfrom plantations totalling 31,205 rai. It takes four kilogrammes ofJatropha seeds to refine into one litre of oil.

It was hard to find that much land for Jatropha growth, because farmersconsidered it only a secondary crop. Therefore, said Mr Quinn, it would bemutually advantageous for the governmnet and D1 to join hands to encouragefarmers to grow Jatropha.

In the tests in the Northeast, the average total revenue per hectare forfarmers was around 67,000 baht from growing 416 kg a year _ 12,727 kg, ortwo million baht in 30 years. Estimated biodiesel production per hectarewas about 3,000 litres over the same 30 years.

Under the project, D1 would offer a purchase guarantee of Jatropha seeds,and guarantee domestic markets for biodiesel distribution. This couldconvince farmers in the Northeast to make Jatropha a priority crop, saidMr Quinn.

D1 hopes to have 188,000 hectares of plantations under Jatropha inBritain, India, the Philippines and South Africa by 2008, for refining 220million litres of biodiesel per year. Current global biodiesel productionis 1.3 million tonnes of crops, expanding by 14% a year and likely toreach 2.7 million tonnes by 2010.

Phichai Tinsuntisook, president of Royal Equipment Co, which is developingthe Jatropha plantation for refining, said Thailand had nothing to lose inpromoting Jatropha for biodiesel production. Because Jatropha is inedible,prices will not swing like other oil-bearing crops such as palm orcoconut.

According to Mr Phichai, government may help after some private sectorscommercialise Jatropha products.

For example, a construction company is growing Jatropha, and believes itcan reduce fuel expenses from one billion baht per year to 700 millionbaht. Other companies are growing Jatropha to export to China.

Like all biodiesel, Jatropha cannot be traded as a replacement forpetroleum. To encourage farmers to grow Jatropha commercially, thegovernment should classify biodiesel from Jatropha the same as diesel, andallow legal sale in the market, Mr Phichai said.