Jatropha-based biofuel project development

Eco-Carbone invests in and manages Jatropha curcas crude oil production projects. This non edible oleaginous plant is endemic in most tropical regions and grows on marginal land, unfit for food crops.

 

Eco-Carbone's projects and activities

 

Eco-Carbone currently operates in Indonesia, Vietnam, Mali and Brazil.  It is involved at all levels of the jatropha agro-industrial development process:
- Technical assistance to farmer cooperatives in establishing and operating jatropha plantations;
- R&D to develop high-yielding jatropha varieties and to adapt improved cultivation practices to local conditions;
- Guaranteed purchase of jatropha grains from contracted farmers;
- Ownership and operation of industrial facilities including jatropha grain crushing facilities;
- Production, marketing, and sale of biofuel and seed cake based bio-fertilizer

Eco-Carbone's agronomic R & D programme

Eco-Carbone launched its R&D program in Brazil in 2005. The R&D network has since then spread to all project sites. This program has already yielded interesting results in terms of improved varieties and better cultivation practices.
It is focused on:
- Identifying  existing varieties with high grain productivity and oil content;
- Selecting varieties according to their adaptability to the projects' ecological conditions;
- Developing a hybrid-breeding program through successive crossing of existing high-yield varieties: this program is being carried out in the Tamanduà Institute in Brazil. Initial breeding efforts have succeeded in producing a new variety that has raised seed yield by 50%; and
- Testing these new varieties and agricultural practices in project experimental fields to adapt them to the ecological and socio-economic situation of the local farming communities.

 

 

Economic and Environmental benefits linked to Eco-Carbone's jatropha projects

 

Through jatropha agro-industrial development, Eco-Carbone brings new opportunities to poor rural areas in developing countries:
- Jatropha grains have a high oil content. Once pressed, they produce a substitute fuel either as esterified biodiesel or crude vegetable oil. This biofuel is an alternative to fossil fuels, especially in isolated rural areas with limited access to imported fuel;
- Planted on degraded land, jatropha mitigates the effects of erosion;
- Jatropha is a new cash crop which blends well into local farming systems;
- Jatropha fruit husks and seed cake are excellent bio-fertilizers; and
- Through carbon sequestration and fuel switch, jatropha generates an additional income from certificates of greenhouse gas emissions reduction.