Driving on Jatropha Biofuel

01/25/2005

DaimlerChrysler has joined with experts from Germany and

India

in a five-year project to explore whether the jatropha plant is suitable for cultivation and if its oils could be used as a resource for biodiesel production. Several C220 CDI sedans modified to run on the fuel are now undergoing testing at DaimlerChrysler's headquarters in Germany until DaimlerChrysler

India

is able to test the fuel in its own field trials. The research has far-reaching implications since the jatropha plant is capable of growing in conditions not suitable for other crops, offering the potential for providing a new source of much-needed income for farmers in India and other countries.

Jatropha oil undergoes a process called transesterification, where its natural glycerin is replaced by methanol, followed by a cleansing process that removes impurities from the oil. The fuel has been shown to operate in modern diesel engines without drawbacks and is nearly CO2 neutral, since burning it releases only the CO2 that the jatropha plants had originally extracted from the atmosphere. It also produces half the hydrocarbon emissions and one-third of the particulate emissions of a typical diesel fuel.

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