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Jatropha: A new form of energy

Ephraim Seow

ephraimseow@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

It plans to create a Jatropha hybrid that can produce more fruits and match the four to six tonnes of oil per hectare that palm trees can generate.

The firm aims to be the global leader in exporting these high yielding plants and in providing technical consulting services to commercial plantations.

JOil, which was formed in August 2008, is a joint venture firm of Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, Tata Chemicals and several other partners. While the company declined to disclose the actual amount of investments, MediaCorp understands that the shareholders have “committed to invest tens of millions in the firm over a few years”.

JOil said that by utilising part of the funds coupled with a 40-strong team of experts, it has developed a tissue culture technique that could potentially clone one million Jatropha plants within a year.

“We believe that the price of fossil fuel will soar as the supply dwindles. We chose the Jatropha plant because it is not a food source and adapts well in degraded soils. It can also survive arid and semi-arid conditions,” said Mr Srinivasan Sriram, JOil’s general manager, strategy and marketing.

“This means, unlike other biofuels like the palm oil, it does not compete for land needed for agriculture and will not be embroiled in food shortage issues,” he explained.

Citing the

As such, there would be 12.8 million hectares of Jatropha plantations worldwide by 2015.

In addition, JOil said that, when compared to palm, soya and rapeseed, Jatropha has the added advantage of meeting sustainability standards in the European Union. It can also produce jet fuel and has been used for testing by various airlines.

“To cater to an international clientele, JOil and Temasek Life Sciences Lab will also adapt the plant to local climate and environmental conditions,” said Dr Hong Yan, general manager, research and operations, JOil.

“JOil has partnered overseas research labs in India, China, Thailand, the Philippines and Kenya for trial production of Jatropha seedlings using its proprietary tissue culture technology,” he added.

Last month, it signed a contract with Indian plant biotech company KF Bioplants (KFB).

Under the contract, KFB will produce and deliver one million top-quality Jatropha plants by next year. The plants will be used for the Indian or international markets.

In July, JOil appointed Toyota Tsusho Corporation as its sales representatives and also to help set up nurseries and/or tissue culture facilities in South-east Asian countries.

“Currently, each seed costs about $0.10 to $2 in the market, depending on the region.

The high-yielding tissue culture seedlings are expected to fetch a premium ranging from 20 to 100 per cent more.” Mr Sriram said.

Going forward, to remain profitable, JOil will create even higher-quality Jatropha plants to sell to new plantations and to replace the older varieties in existing plantations.

It aims to produce five to 10 million seedlings annually in each production lab.— Biotechnology firm JOil is confident that it can breed and genetically engineer the Jatropha plant to be a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuel and other biofuels.2008 Global Exchange for Social Investment report, JOil said Jatropha are expected to be planted on one to two million hectares of land annually over the next few years globally.