Bio-Diesel - A good sorce from the Jatropha plant

[Stuart]

Saw this plant mentioned briefly on BBC's Click program and noted it down.
http://www.jatrophaworld.org/

[Tx-Ranger]

Good plant, grows almost anywhere. Grows great here in Texas. Like a walnut.

[coachgeo]

Last I heard the reality of a Jotropha plantation for fuel production was expermented with by mercedes and one other big biz as a trial in India. Final output was not deamed cost affective BUT... it was mentioned that in more fertile land it might be. Think they were trying arrid land which Jotropha grows in fine.... but produces a lower yeild of nuts.

Other potential problem is it is a weed (either technically or just spreads like one; not sure which). Their is concern of uncontrollable growth in the sense of it possibly becoming an invading species in some environments.

[Anorak_ian]

They should genetically modify it,
cross it with an elephant for big nuts.
Also, so it is easy to harvest, cross the stems with the back legs of a bulldog.

[TedV]

have they tried to plant it in the South East USA? Kudzu is a ground cover in Japan easy to control until planted in the S.E. USA. For those who don't know, it grows uncontrolably here. I set up my tent 2 feet away from some once, by the end of the weekend my tent had it growing on it. You can sit and watch it grow, seriously. It was brought to the US cause it seemed like a good idea at the time.

If Jatropha responds here like Kudzu, it would solve the worlds fuel crisis.