Study finds hardy jatropha sucks up water

It may not come as a surprise to industry experts that researchers have found a drought-resistant biofuel source soaks up water.

Researchers out of the Netherlands-based University of Twente have issued a report detailing that jatropha, an oil-rich plant that can grow in arid regions, requires five times as much water per unit of energy compared to sugarcane and corn, and 10 times as much as the sugar beet, a known water-efficient biofuel crop.

As corn-based biofuel and other biofuel types have raised global food prices (see World Bank says food prices hit by biofuels), biofuel producers have locked onto jatropha oil, an inedible vegetable oil that comes from the seeds of the Jatropha curcas plant.

The plant’s oil can be processed, producing a biodiesel that can be used in a standard diesel car. Its residue also can be used as biomass feedstock to power electricity plants or used as fertilizer. Earlier this year, the plant's oil helped to power test flights by Air New Zealand, Japan Airlines and Continental Airlines.

England's D1 Oils (AIM: DOO) shut down its biodiesel operations, blaming subsidized U.S. biodiesel imports for the move, in favor of a plant science and planting program for jatropha (see UK's D1 Oils exits biodiesel refining business).

But the entrepreneurial research university's new report supports the quiet concerns in the industry that jatropha is not as ideal as once believed. The plant can survive through droughts, but in order to thrive, it needs favorable growing conditions. The study found that without sufficient water, the plant has a low amount of oil production.

However, jatropha is still a key priority in India, where the government of the state of Orissa is preparing a master plan to use jatropha plantations to secure jobs in rural areas (see Could biodiesel solve rural India's job woes?).

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