[Stoves] Jatropha and its future

Anand Karve adkarve at gmail.com
Sun Aug 7 23:44:46 CDT 2011


Dear Crispin,
Because of lack of plant breeding input, Jatropha yields only about 1
ton seed per ha and the oil % in the seed is only 30%. Indian farmers
had been growing castor for at least 2000 years, and they have
conducted a lot of selection and breeding to develop many high
yielding varieties. The main ingredient of castor oil is ricinoleic
acid, which irritates the mucous membranes of the stomach and
intestine, which then secrete fluids to wash the irritation off. That
is the reason of the purgative effect. If castor oil is mixed with
other food, the ricinoleic acid is diluted and owing to longer
residence time in the stomach and intestine, it gets digested. Castor
oil cake gets completely digested in the biogas plant and all of it
gets converted into biogas. I do not have reliable figures, but I
think that 1 kg of castor oil cake would yield about 1000 litres
biogas.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 11:33 AM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
<crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Dr AD
>
> I was under the impression that the castor oil had to be de-toxified at some
> level. There is a product called Covo Oil, a castor cooking oil, that has
> been treated, we were told. Not so?
>
> Interesting. The article I linked says in a couple of places that Jatropha
> has not been 'domesticated' with the result that the yields are erratic.
> Strange, that.
>
> I can't think of anything close to those oil yields. The best I know of for
> sunflower is 49% variety but it is not a high mass one.  The heavier
> yielding have 47% so more total oil but still, 2 tons would be good on dry
> land.
>
> I take it that the castor is not irrigated, correct?
>
> The cake is 50% of the crop so 2.5 tons gives how much biogas? And how much
> 'leftovers'?
>
> Thanks
> Crispin
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Dear Crispin,
> we have in India castor hybrids that can yield upto 5 tons of seed or
> 2.5 ton oil per ha. Only Malaysian oil palm can outyield hybrid castor.
> Castor oil acts as a purgative if one gulps it directly, but if used in
> cooking or frying, whereby it gets mixed with other type of food, it loses
> its purgative effect and it is digested by the human system like any other
> vegetable oil. Castor oilcake is however highly toxic because of the
> presence of ricin in it, but it is a great feedstock for producing biogas.
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
>
>
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-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)

*Please change my email address in your records to: adkarve at gmail.com *




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