SINGAPORE (Commodity Online): What happened to the once acclaimed Jatropha revolution which was about to bring winds of change in the energy sector? It seems nobody knows clearly what happened to the big Jatropha projects.

And, as if the plight of Jatropha industry is not bad enough, a provocatively titled webinar “Is the Jatropha Sector becoming another Dot Com Bubble?” appeared on September 30.

However, Jatro entrepreneurs Chris  Hunter & James Scruby offered proof that the Jatropha industry has learnt a lot in the few short years since Jatropha was first planted as a commercial energy crop, and that given reasonable time to domesticate the plant, there is a silver lining to Jatropha biofuel production.   
 
Chris & James are Directors at Viridesco, which has a 4-year-old Jatropha plantation in Mozambique. James is also a director at Elsbett AG, a world leader in pure plant oil technology for diesel engines, which utilises Jatropha oil as fuel. 
 
During a discussion, organised by the Second JatrophaWorld Africa team, Chris & James shared their expectations and business models to reflect the current realities of Jatropha cultivation, and provided honest views on yields, water requirements, harvesting and other on-the-ground realities of managing a Jatropha plantation. 

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And they felt that it is time to be sensible about growing Jatropha. During the webinar, Chris rightfully pointed out that in theory, there is no problem with Jatropha as a large-scale plantation crop. 
 
Discussing some of the key causes for Jatropha project failures in the past few years, he said, “These problems come from several sources. Some have misjudged the yields by having bullish forecasts at the beginning before we knew much, and projecting early revenues, which didn’t actually take place. They have now run into working capital issues. Others thought Jatropha will yield a lot with limited rainfall, when in fact, it won’t yield much with limited rainfall. People didn’t know much about the pest outbreaks they might have to contend with early on…” 
 
The fact is, Jatropha is a young crop and much more time is needed to perfect the farming and husbandry practices. Just like it took 20-30 years to realise large-scale planting of rubber and oil palm. 
 
James Scruby on the other hand, called on the Jatropha community to look at the Jatropha value chain differently. Drawing from his own experience, he said “With the traditional model, which makes Jatropha oil into biodiesel in a chemical processing plant…you have a situation in which you are adopting a lot of additional costs in the chemical processing.” 
 
His view is that adopting the biodiesel model increases the need for a large-scale plantation model to cover the associated extra costs.  His solution is that use pure plant oil instead of aiming to refine Jatropha oil into biodiesel. He added, “By using pure plant oil, you don’t have any of those costs, because you simply press the oil in local pressing equipment and you can use the product using modified or new engines for Jatropha oil. Within this model, I see a commercial approach, which has better margins and benefits local communities.”  
  
Those seeking a realistic picture of the Jatropha business should attend the 2nd JatrophaWorld Africa conference, on October 14-15 in Brussels. 
 
Second JatrophaWorld Africa features a panel of experienced Jatropha growers who have made good progress in Jatropha cultivation on different conditions in various parts of Africa, including Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Egypt, Libya and Sudan. The conference also provides an update on the latest research into the key challenges from the world’s top Jatropha researchers, and offers an excellent opportunity to find out more about the characteristics of the Jatropha and how to improve the husbandry and biotechnology. 
 
The premier Africa-focused Jatropha conference is already attracting participation from leading Jatro-Entrepreneurs from around the world, as well as biodiesel producers, oil companies, power producers, investors, government officials and researchers.
(Courtesy: PRlog)