Jatropha plants are grown for it's seeds which yields oil. The seeds are poisonous and are yields about 27-40% jatropha oil. Jatropha oil is generally being used as vegetable oil and to make soap and candles.Jatropha oil can be processed further to produce a high-quality biodiesel (bio-fuel), which can be used in a standard diesel car and can be burned in almost any diesel engine with no modification. The residue of the oil is used as biomass feedstock to power electricity plants or used as fertilizer. A hectare of jatropha can produce about 1,892 litres of fuel.
Countries all over the world are demanding soloutions like this, since the impact of global warming becoming ever more apparent now a days.
The Indian Railways has started to use the oil (blended with diesel fuel in various ratios) to power its diesel engines with great success.
The 'Air New Zealand' has successfully completed a test flight, by using the mix of jatropha oil and Jet A1 in 50-50 ratio. ref: New "Second-Generation" Biofuel Passes Airliner Test
see an article from BBC, Could jatropha be a biofuel panacea?
tamil name: kadalazhi
