Tellurian Biodiesel Acquires Superior Process Technologies

07 Feb 2008 - Tellurian Biodiesel, independent maker and marketer of sustainable high-quality biodiesel, announced an agreement to acquire Superior Process Technologies (SPT) from Baker Commodities.

Early to identify the emerging opportunity for biodiesel in the U.S., Baker Commodities invested in SPT in December 2003 to develop technology for the conversion of rendered materials into high-quality biodiesel. Tellurian has been collaborating with Baker and SPT on the construction and upgrade of biodiesel plants since 2006.

Engineering expertise and technology acquired in the deal positions Tellurian to move forward with plans for a nationwide network of plants capable of converting America's abundance of recycled feedstocks and other domestic fats and oils into biodiesel that exceeds both ASTM and EN quality specifications.

The new deal also gives Tellurian the technology to turn low-grade raw materials into high-quality fuels at prices that can compete with petrodiesel.

SPT will serve as Tellurian's engineering department, and Tellurian will continue to offer Baker access to research and development that assist its ongoing efforts in the field. All current SPT employees will be kept on to continue development of innovative process technologies needed to convert commonly available and new, unique bio-based feedstocks such as algae oil and trap grease into renewable fuels.

Cognis Extends its Patented Biodiesel Testing System to Diesel Distributors

Results-in-two-minutes will Help Diesel Distributors Quickly Test and Better Price Every Load of its Biodiesel Blends

Cognis Corporation, through its QTA® System business, recently announced that it has successfully developed a BioDiesel Blend Analysis that, in just two minutes, can accurately measure biodiesel percentages in biodiesel-diesel blends.

Cincinnati, OH. January 30, 2008 -- Cognis Corporation, through its QTA® System business, recently announced that it has successfully developed a BioDiesel Blend Analysis that, in just two minutes, can accurately measure biodiesel percentages in biodiesel-diesel blends. Long known for its ability to accurately test the quality of biodiesel production, the QTA System can now quickly and economically determine the blend percentages for each diesel load leaving a distribution facility.

Barbara Stefl, Global Business Director, said, "Much like the quality testing process currently used in our customer's biodiesel production plants, just a small drop of diesel fuel is all it takes to determine whether the fuel you are selling was properly blended and accurately priced given its biodiesel concentration. And, because the QTA System can measure the blend concentration of a fuel load in just two minutes, you have time to change pricing or adjust the blend percentage before the load leaves the terminal. Our approach does not require a lab or a chemist to operate."

Cognis' QTA patented BioDiesel Blend Analysis starts by digitizing the light spectra of the diesel fuel using proven infrared technology. Those spectra are then sent, via the internet, to Cognis' central database where algorithms converts the spectra, in real-time, into standard quality measurements or percentage measurements that are viewed online. All this occurs in less than two minutes.

Cognis' QTA system is offered on a subscription basis and does not require any capital investment. The monthly subscription includes an easy-to-use infrared spectrometer, software for a standard PC and unlimited use of Cognis' Chingometric™ centrally-calibrated algorithms that covert the light spectra into actionable information.

Cognis QTA will be conducting real-time demonstrations of its new BioDiesel Blend and its BioDiesel Quality Testing System at the National BioDiesel Conference & Expo on February 3-6 in Orlando, Florida.

About QTA®
QTA® is a service business of Cognis Corporation -a worldwide supplier of innovative specialty chemicals and nutritional ingredients, with a particular focus on the areas of wellness and sustainability. The company employs about 7,700 people, and it operates production sites and service centers in 30 countries. Cognis' QTA® business provides on-site, ready-to-use analytical capabilities without additional investment in equipment or personnel. Patented, centralized calibration technology enhances accuracy. For more information on the QTA® system, visit http://www.qta.com .

Cognis is owned by private equity funds advised by Permira, GS Capital Partners, and SV Life Sciences. In 2006, Cognis recorded sales of 3.37 billion euros and an Adjusted EBITDA (operating result) of 394 million euros.

Making BioDiesel

This article is taken from www.schnews.org.uk. Reprinted here. Read and Enjoy.

- It’s a piece of piss

There’s nothing we like more at SchNEWS towers than a spot of DIY, be it a pint of homebrew or a free party. But one piece of DIY that we reckon is up there with free parties is home made diesel.

Yep, forget about handing your hard-earned coffers over to the corrupt, greedy and killing corporations like Shell and BP, take a squeezy bottle, a piece of sticky backed plastic and make your own biodiesel. No seriously, biodiesel is a fuel made from waste vegetable oil, of which there is literally tons of the stuff being dumped in landfill sites up and down the country! This otherwise waste is easily collected from chip shops and restaurants and without too much hassle processed to make biodiesel that can be used to run any diesel engine. Biodiesel, far from being an inferior homemade product, is better for your engine than the usual crappy fossil-based fuel that is helping to screw up the environment and people’s health. Biodiesel can be made in your own backyard with little start up cost involved and works out at about 30 pence per litre. Wanna know more? Then read on.

Let’s first rewind and go back to the beginning of the 1900s where Dr Rudolf Diesel has just invented the diesel engine and is displaying it at the Paris exhibition. Sat right there is the mother of all diesel engines happily chugging away running on peanut oil! Rudolf had designed the Diesel engine to be run a variety of fuels and during his Paris speech said, "the diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and will help considerably in the development of the agriculture of the countries which use it." Sounds good for developing countries but not so good for the petroleum industry. A few years later and Rudolf Diesel’s body is found drifting face down in the English Channel. After holding secret talks with the UK navy about fitting diesel engines into their submarine fleet Rudolf Diesel was killed by the French to stop his diesel technology being fitted into submarines over the world, nothing new there then! After Diesel’s death the petroleum industry capitalised on the diesel engine by naming one of their crappy by-products of petroleum distillation ‘diesel fuel’. That’s how dirty diesel fuel has come to be the fuel for diesel engines.

Fast-forward to the beginning of a brave new millennium, one where oil is running out, the climate is fucked and Biodiesel can save the world, well no but it can do its bit!

A few facts on biodiesel

Biodiesel is biodegradable and non-toxic. 100% biodiesel is as biodegradable as sugar and less toxic than table salt. It biodegrades up-to four times faster than petroleum diesel fuel with up-to 98% biodegradation in three weeks. However, contrary to a popular misconception, it stores indefinitely in completely full, cool, dark containers. Compared to crappy fossil fuel diesel, biodiesel has the following emissions characteristics:

* 100% reduction of net carbon dioxide
* 100% reduction of sulphur dioxide
* 40-60% reduction of soot emissions
* 10-50% reduction of carbon monoxide
* a reduction of all polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and specifically the reduction of the following carcinogenic PAHs:
* phenanthren by 97%
* benxofloroanthen by 56%
* benz-a-pyrene by 71%
* aldehydes and aromatic compounds by 13%
* 5-10% reduction of nitrous oxide depending on age and tuning of vehicle.

For every one ton of fossil fuel burnt, 3 tons of CO2 is released into the atmosphere, biodiesel only releases the CO2 that it has taken in while the plants it is made from were growing, therefore there is no negative impact on the carbon cycle.

How to build a single tank biodiesel processor

Firstly though, we have to say that our biodiesel expert is not longer involved in SchNEWS so we are not able to offer any advice or further information on the subject further than what's here. There are websites listed at the bottom of the page which contain loads more info. Please don't email us asking questions about biodiesel as we won't be able to help.

Equipment required

* 45 gallon drum.
* 1/2 or 3/4 Hp electric motor.
* Two pulleys which produce 250 rpm and a max of 750 rpm at mixer blade.
* A belt for the above.
* 12 inch rolled steel rod.
* Two steel shelf brackets (for the blade).
* 1 1/2 inch (38mm) brass ball valve.
* A hinge and a spring to act as a belt tensioned.
* 2000-watt electric water heater element.
* A water heater thermostat.
* 1 1/2 diameter piece of steel pipe * 3-5 inches long with male threads on one end.
* Assorted tat: angle iron, wood, screws etc.

Assembly

1. Cut a large opening (about half the top) in the top of the steel drum.
2. Drill 11/2-inch hole in the bottom of the drum.
3. Weld the 1 1/2-diameter pipe in the hole at the bottom of the drum.
4. Attach the 1 1/2-inch brass ball valve to the pipe. This is the drain valve.
5. Drill a hole in the side of the drum at the bottom, same size as the heater element.
6. Fit the heater element making sure it is not touching the side of the drum.
7. Wire up the heater element.

Chemical mixer

1. Attach one pulley to the rolled steel rod.
2. Attach the other pulley to the spindle of the electric motor.
3. Weld the propeller to the other end of the rolled steel rod (shelf brackets).
4. Attach the rod, pulley and propeller assembly to one side of the hinge.
5. Weld a piece of angle iron across the top of the drum.
6. Weld the unattached side of the hinge to the angle iron so the propeller and rod assembly sits in the middle of the drum. The hinge should swing the propeller and rod back and forth.
7. Mount the electric motor on the side of the drum.
8. Fit the belt to the pulleys and tighten by wedging a block of wood into the hinge.

You also need to fashion a simple wooden measuring stick with 10 litre increments.

Other bits and bobs

A hydrometer is a good piece of kit to have to measure the specific gravity of the biodiesel. The specific gravity of biodiesel should be between 0.860 and 0.900, usually 0.880. The specific gravity of vegetable oil is 0.920 therefore the specific gravity of biodiesel should be lower than the vegetable oil used to make the biodiesel.

How to make biodiesel

Every time you make a new batch of biodiesel using old vegetable oil you have to find out the amount of reactants required to get the correct reaction, this process is know as titration. In addition to the above equipment you will also need the following equipment:

Petri dish
20 ml beaker
1500 ml beaker
500 ml beaker
Isopropyl alcohol
A graduated eye dropper
Litmus paper
Blender with a glass bowl.
Methanol
Used cooking oil
Sodium Hydroxide

Titration

Step 1 Titration: to determine the quantity of catalyst required

1. Measure 1 gram of Sodium Hydroxide onto a petri dish
2. Measure 1 Lt. of distilled water into a 1500 ml beaker.
3. Pour the 1 gram of Sodium Hydroxide into the 1 Lt. of distilled water
4. Label ‘do not drink Sodium Hydroxide’
5. Measure 10 ml of isopropyl alcohol into a 20ml beaker
6. Dissolve 1ml of used vegetable oil into the isopropyl alcohol.
7. Label oil/alcohol.
8. Use the graduated eye dropper to drop 1 millilitre of Sodium Hydroxide /water solution into the oil/alcohol solution
9. After 1 millilitre of Sodium Hydroxide /water solution is added check the pH
10. Repeat steps 8&9 until the oil/alcohol reaches a pH of between 8&9. The pH increase will usually occur suddenly. Usually no more than 3 millilitres of Sodium Hydroxide /water solution will need to be added.
11. Use the following equation: · the number of millilitres of the Sodium Hydroxide/water solution dropped into the oil/alcohol mixture = x · (x+3.5)=N

· N= the number of grams of Sodium Hydroxide required to neutralise and react 1 Litre of used vegetable oil.

· N will be between 4.5-6.5, but it can be higher if the oil has been used for a long time.

Step 2. Measure the reactants

Measure the reactants in separate containers

1 Litre of filtered used oil into a 1500ml beaker

200 ml of methanol into a 500 ml beaker

N grams of Sodium Hydroxide onto a petri dish

Step 3. Dissolve the Sodium Hydroxide into the Methanol

The third step is to combine the methanol with the Sodium Hydroxide to create sodium methoxide, an extremely strong base. Once the Sodium Hydroxide has been dissolved in the methanol, the sodium methoxide must be mixed with the vegetable oil straight away.

· Carefully pour the methanol into the blender, any spills must be cleaned immediately with a water and vinegar solution.

· Carefully pour the Sodium Hydroxide into the blender

· Replace the lid of the blender and blend on the lowest setting for 30 seconds, until the Sodium Hydroxide has dissolved. Sodium methoxide has been produced and caution must be exercised

Step 4. Mix the reactants

· Remove the lid of the blender keeping your face well away from the top of the blender

· carefully pour the vegetable oil into the blender

· Place the lid on the blender and blend on a medium/high setting for 15 minutes. If the bowl or the blender motor get over hot switch off the blender and leave until cooled down sufficiently to continue again.

Step 5. Allow the glycerine to settle

Settling takes about 8 hours but since 75% of the separation occurs within the first hour after the reaction immediate separation will be visible. Within 8 hours the glycerine will have fallen to the bottom leaving a layer on top, this is methyl esters, or more commonly referred to as biodiesel

Step 6. Separation

After blending the contents can either be transferred into a 1500ml container with a stopcock or left in the blender for at least 8 hours.

Step 7. Clean up

Store the leftover used vegetable oil in a dry cool place

Clean all the equipment so it is ready to use again

Expose the glycerine to air and sunlight for 1 week and then use as soap.

Pour the biodiesel into your fuel tank and laugh like fuck!

So there you have it, fuel from vegetable oil. Of course this is only one method of making biodiesel, there are many recipes for making biodiesel just take a look through the web sites at the end of this article. Don’t be fooled into thinking that biodiesel is anything but a serious contender in the alternative fuels market, throughout the world there are commercial processors being built to supply a rapidly emerging market. The UK government however, has chosen to ignore biodiesel, this is their mistake and something we can capitalise on. Let’s start making biodiesel and get production down to the local small scale level with co-operatives and individuals supplying all our needs while taking power away from the mega-corporations.

For more information on biodiesel check out www.planetfuels.co.uk rather than emailing us (please, you wouldn't believe how many people do email us) - we're no experts, unfortunately. Alternatively the first book on the following website (LILI: how to make biodiesel by Dan Carter & Jon Halle) has been recommended to us: www.lowimpact.org/acatalog/books_biodiesel.html The Low Impact Living Initiative website also has other information and equipment for biodiesel and other related topics.

Other Useful web sites:

www.biodieselcommunity.org
www.biodieselfuelonline.com
www.lazymansguideto.com/Making-Biodiesel.html
www.veggievan.org
www.dancingrabbit.org/biodiesel

Philippine biodiesel meets international standards

By Abigail L. Ho, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines -- Initial tests on locally produced biodiesel have yielded positive results, indicating that the Philippines can produce jatropha-based biodiesel that meets international standards.

PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp.’s jatropha-based biodiesel, tested in collaboration with the Technological University of the Philippines and Chemrez Technologies Inc., met both European and American Biodiesel Standards, according to data from PNOC-AFC.

The tests included jatropha oil and methyl ester production and characterization, development of high-value products, and actual performance testing of jatropha methyl ester.

“And the variety we used for that test wasn’t even the best variety we have found so far,” PNOC-AFC president and chief executive Peter Anthony Abaya said.

In preparation for commercial production, he said PNOC-AFC and the Department of Science and Technology were still conducting tests on which variety of jatropha would be best for propagation.

The pool has so far been narrowed to six local varieties.

Based on initial trends, on the fourth year or by 2011, PNOC-AFC could have an annual average yield of 7.5-15 tons of jatropha per hectare and that 1,000-1,400 seeds will be needed to produce a kilo of jatropha.

The oil extraction rate ranged from 30-40 percent on varieties taken from the southern city of General Santos and the provinces of Saranggani, Davao, Palawan, Batangas, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Camarines Sur and Sorsogon.

Before establishing commercial plantations, PNOC-AFC aims to put in place a 1,500-hectare nursery from which the seedlings for the plantations will come.

It then hopes to develop, together with private sector partners, 700,000 hectares of jatropha plantations -- 140,000 hectares this year, another 250,000 hectares next year and another 310,000 hectares in 2010.

In terms of actual jatropha-based biodiesel, PNOC-AFC envisions production of 100,000 metric tons next year, 400,000 in 2010 and 500,000 in 2011.

CJP Found New Couple Oil Crop Cultivation Technology For Biodiesel Production

(PRWEB) December 30, 2007 ---The years of continuous research, experiments and trials have given Centre for Jatropha Promotion & Biodiesel (CJP) a big break through in the search for a viable alternative feedstock for biodiesel in combination with Jatropha. CJP is the Global authority for scientific commercialization of Jatropha fuel crop.

The Director Plant Science CJP Mr. R.R. Sharma has stated that Jatropha plantation occupy about 50% of the planted land and to utilized the rest of land in sustainable manner we have been experimenting different intercropping options, patterns and agro- technologies. We have been in search of such an inter-crop for Jatropha which should be oil bearing like Jatropha itself without competing with it for food and water and should be capable of fulfilling Jatropha fertilizer requirement and still maintaining soil fertility.

"Finally we got it," said Mr. Sharma. Emergence of the combination crop system may change the entire scenario of the biodiesel industry and shall provide much relief to the industry which desperately in a need of a viable sustainable non-food feed stocks.

Mr. Sharma further added that, "Now we can ensure an oil yield of > 6 tons per ha i.e. same acreage of land may provide double output. The technology termed as COC by CJP shall be released commercially soon."

Chicken Fat Converted Into Biodiesel

Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated supercritical methanol as a method of converting chicken fat into biodiesel fuel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid, a major by-product of the wood-pulping process, into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90 percent, significantly advancing efforts to develop commercially viable fuel out of plentiful, accessible and low-cost feedstocks and other agricultural by-products.

“Major oil companies are already examining biodiesel as an alternative to petroleum,” said R.E. “Buddy” Babcock, professor of chemical engineering. “With the current price of petroleum diesel and the results of this project and others, I think energy producers will think even more seriously about combining petroleum-based diesel with a biodiesel product made out of crude and inexpensive feedstocks.”

Under Babcock’s guidance, Brent Schulte, a chemical-engineering graduate student in the university’s College of Engineering, subjected low-grade chicken fat, donated by Tyson Foods, and tall oil fatty acids, provided by Georgia Pacific, to a chemical process known as supercritical methanol treatment. Supercritical methanol treatment dissolves and causes a reaction between components of a product – in this case, chicken fat and tall oil – by subjecting the product to high temperature and pressure.

Substances become “supercritical” when they are heated and pressurized to a critical point, the highest temperature and pressure at which the substance can exist in equilibrium as a vapor and liquid. The simple, one-step process does not require a catalyst.

Schulte treated chicken fat and tall oil with supercritical methanol and produced biodiesel yields in excess of 89 and 94 percent, respectively. With chicken fat, Schulte reached maximum yield at 325 degrees Celsius and a 40-to-1 molar ratio, which refers to the amount of methanol applied. The process also produced a respectable yield of 80 percent at 300 degrees Celsius and the same amount of methanol. At 275 degrees Celsius and the same amount of methanol, the process was ineffective. Ideal results using tall oil fatty acid were achieved at 325 degrees Celsius and a 10-to-1 molar ratio. At 300 degrees Celsius and the same amount of methanol, the conversion produced a yield of almost 80 percent. Again, at 275 degrees Celsius, the process was ineffective.

Previous efforts, including a study two years ago by another one of Babcock’s graduate students, to make biodiesel out of low-cost feedstocks – as opposed to refined oils – have used one of two conventional methods, base-catalyzed or acid-catalyzed esterification. Although successful at producing biodiesel, these conventional methods struggle to be economically feasible due to long reaction times, excessive amounts of methanol required and/or undesired production of soaps during processing.

“The supercritical method hit the free fatty-acid problem head on,” Babcock said. “Because it dissolves the feed material and eliminates the need for the base catalyst, we now do not have the problems with soap formation and loss of yield. The supercritical method actually prefers free fatty acid feedstocks.”

Biodiesel is a nonpetroleum-based alternative diesel fuel that consists of alkyl esters derived from renewable feedstocks such as plant oils or animal fats. The fuel is made by converting these oils and fats into what are known as fatty acid alkyl esters. The conventional processes require the oils or fats be heated and mixed with a combination of methanol and sodium hydroxide as a catalyst. The conversion process is called transesterification.

Most biodiesel is produced from refined vegetable oils, such as soybean and rapeseed oil, which are expensive; they generally account for 60 to 80 percent of the total cost of biodiesel. Due to these high feedstock prices, biodiesel production struggles to be economically feasible. Currently, as Babcock alluded, biodiesel cannot compete with petroleum diesel unless the per-gallon price of diesel remains higher than $3. For these reasons, researchers recently have focused efforts on less refined and less-expensive feedstocks as a more viable competitor to conventional diesel.

Biodiesel has many benefits. In addition to reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, it is better for the environment than purely petroleum-based products. As a renewable, biodegradable and thus carbon-neutral material, biodiesel does not contribute to greenhouse gases. In fact, it decreases sulfur and particulate-matter emissions. It also provides lubrication for better-functioning mechanical parts and has excellent detergent properties.

“Biodiesel provides an effective, sustainable-use fuel with many desirable properties,” Schulte said. “In addition to being a renewable, biodegradable and carbon-neutral fuel source, it can be formed in a matter of months from feedstocks produced locally, which promotes a more sustainable energy infrastructure. It also decreases dependence on foreign oil and creates new labor and market opportunities for domestic crops.”

Adapted from materials provided by University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Source: sciencedaily.com

How to make biodiesel

The video shows the whole chain from seed to diesel. Enjoy.

Spanish energy firm to invest $250M in biofuel in the Philippines

50,000 hectares to be planted with cassava

By Amy R. Remo
Inquirer
12/11/2007

An energy company based in Spain plans to invest as much as $250 million to develop 50,000 hectares of land into cassava plantations whose output will be used as feedstock for biofuel facilities in the Philippines, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said.

Abengoa Bioenergy signed a memorandum of understanding with Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp. during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s two-day state visit to Spain last week, Yap said.

Abengoa is the largest ethanol producer in Europe, where it operates several bioethanol facilities. It also has plants in Brazil and the United States, where it ranks fifth in the industry.

The memorandum of understanding, which is valid for a year, was signed by Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat and Abengoa chairman Javier Salgado Leirado last week.

Under its provisions, Abengoa will help the Department of Agriculture identify varieties of cassava for cultivation trials.

Puyat said that Abengoa would provide design engineering and supply the machinery required to develop cassava plantations, as well as study the possibility of setting up bioethanol factories in the Philippines.

Feedstock production from the distillery is projected at 1.0-1.2 million tons to generate about 150 to 200 million liters of bioethanol a year, he said.

Through a Abengoa-PADCC working committee, the PADCC will help Abengoa in conducting capability-enhancement training for farmers, Puyat added.

He said Abengoa would lend its technical expertise in the agricultural production side to develop high yielding varieties and increase feedstock productivity.

Yap said Abengoa and PADCC could enter into partnerships focusing on energy crops development and cost-competitive biomass technology.

Earlier, a Bilbao-based biodiesel leader in Europe -- Bionor Transformacion S.A. -- revealed plans to invest $200 million in the Philippines to develop at least 100,000 hectares of land into jatropha plantations to be used as feedstock for biofuel plants.

Evolution Biodiesel Kits

This is an overview of a small scale biodiesel processors made in the USA. For those interested in making quality biodiesel in your shop, farm or home, then this video is for you. This shows that Biodiesel is easy to make...regardless of price making your own is cheap; best of all it creates the least damage to the environment. Watch and enjoy.

PNOC to propagate jatropha for biodiesel in Mindanao.

On the news today from the PDI (Philippines Daily Inquirer):

By Abigail L. Ho

PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp. is set to propagate jatropha, for use as biodiesel feedstock, in Mindanao.

According to an official of PNOC-AFC, a subsidiary of the Philippine National Oil Co., Mindanao appears to be the best and most suitable place for growing jatropha, mostly because of the climate and the large tracts of idle land available for use as plantations.

"The Food and Agricultural Organization, in its recent study, assessed the potential of jatropha production as a biodiesel feedstock," PNOC-AFC chair Renato Velasco said in a statement. "The results showed that we have sufficient arable lands and favorable climatic conditions to ensure the large feedstock production every year, and Mindanao is found to be the most suitable area.

"We have already started planting jatropha in Cagayan de Oro and we aim to establish an aggregate amount of at least 700,000 hectares of jatropha plantations all over the country, bulk of which will be in Mindanao."

While encouraging Mindanao farmers to go into jatropha production, he said the aim of PNOC-AFC's jatropha propagation program was not to make farmers shift from producing food crops to planting jatropha.

"We want the farmers to continue growing rice, sugar and others," Velasco explained. "What we intend to do is give farmers additional income by planting jatropha (on idle lands)."

He said jatropha production was a viable livelihood option for farmers as this required minimal supervision and would not compete with food crops for land.

Idle tracts of land--ones that would not be suitable for food crops--could be used in jatropha cultivation.

As for concerns on the use of jatropha as biodiesel feedstock, PNOC-AFC, together with relevant government agencies and the academe, are conducting wide-scale scientific work to discover which variety of jatropha would be best for widespread propagation, Velasco said.

"The Philippines is capable of producing jatropha biodiesel that can pass international standards," Velasco said. "What is more important to note is that we used seeds from the local jatropha variety."