Jatropha is one bean in the bio-fuel swirl that's worth book-marking to see if it ever makes something of itself. This little weed first caught my attention a year ago when it fueled a 747 on a two hour flight. Here are some of the hurdles jatropha appears to be clearing on its way to the big show:
- Don't compete with food stock (as corn-for-ethanol did)
- Prove adaptable to local soil and climate, with no adverse effect on biodiversity
- Be clean, with an acceptable carbon footprint
- Be commercially viable (here's Goldman Sachs' take)
What's more, jatropha is proving to be regenerative to the soils it grows in, and a stable, year-round source of employment in otherwise abandoned crop lands. The New York Times reports here on jatropha's trial run in Brazil.
The jatropha bean, like some magical beanstalk, offers the clear vision of a future where the energy we use comes from diverse sources and locations. If jatropha were among a slew of ways we powered our lives (wind and solar and natural gas and geothermal, etc.), and it grew ubiquitously in the marginal, abandoned crop lands of Africa, Brazil and Central America, it's hard to imagine a national defense policy that had as its cornerstone: to secure access to the jatropha fields. (Or, to secure access to the earth, wind and sun).
What a magic little bean, a magic little fuel stock, the jatropha might be.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Tags: Alternative Fuels, Aviation, Energy, Renewable Energy, Transportation
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