I read a headline today on plans in India to use satellite imagery to find land that is currently wastelands that could be used to grow jatropha curcas as a biodiesel feedstock. A little research revealed the cultivation of jatropha in India may provide some valuable additional benefits.
First up are the better known benefits of biodiesel:
- Renewable fuel to reduce dependence on oil.
- Cleaner burning than traditional diesel for lower emissions.
- Biodiesel can be used at different blend levels to work best with local vehicle requirements.
Some additional benefits that could result:
- Using land that is currently considered wasteland to grow the oil feedstocks does not displace and food crops.
- Advanced technology can be used to locate the plantations to have optimum results in land use, refining and transportation costs.
- The jatropha plantations could provide additional employment to to India’s large population.
An Indian government study shows 20% of the country or about 64 million hectares qualified as wasteland. This study hypothesized a 5 hectare jatropha oil plantation would provide a family a 60,000 rupee annual income at today’s prices.
To sum up the benefits I will take a quote from the study above: (NCR is the region around Delhi)
“As NCR has both urban as well as rural areas, the bio-diesel production will thus lead to growth of economy in both urban as well as rural sector. In urban sector, it will provide an environment friendly fuel, which will save the non-renewable sources of energy and would thus save the urban area from more pollution. In rural sector, it will provide employment to many people and will thus solve the problem of unemployment to a great extent. Also, the well-connected road network in this area would thus help in transportation of fuel as well as raw material in an efficient manner. “
