Jatropha cultivation and oil Extraction – A case study in Bangladesh Agricultural University Farm in Bangladesh : www.reein.org

Bio-fuel / Bio-Diesel

Jatropha cultivation and oil Extraction – A case study in Bangladesh Agricultural University Farm

Md. Daulat Hussain¹and Md. Parvez Islam²

¹Professor and ²Lecturer,Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202.

E-mail: dhussainbau@yahoo.com and engr_parvezfpm@bau.edu.bd

Abstract

This paper has described the Jatropha Curcas as a source of jatropha oil for diesel engine operation. This is a small tree grown in wide range of soils and available in the upland areas of Bangladesh. Climatic conditions, soil maintenance, maintenance of plants, fertilizer requirement, water management and harvesting are described. Processing of seeds for jatropha oil production are also described. The price ranges of processing plants are not very high. Small scale processing plants can be established in the country. When compared this Jatropha oil with fossil diesel oil, Jatropha oil is very suitable considering its physico-mechanical properties and simple extracting process.

Key words: Jatropha oil, diesel engine, Jatropha cake, oil expeller and physico-mechanical properties

Introduction

Total electricity generation capacity in Bangladesh is about 3.6 gigawatts of which 94% comes from thermal production and 6% from hydro. This covers only 20% of the total demand of the country. In the rural areas people presently used energy from petrol, diesel and kerosene. A very little people living in the Periurban areas use low quality coal for domestic purposes. Presently the prices of the fossil fuels such as petroleum products and coal are very costly. Due to this high price people becoming disinterested to use them as domestic fuel supply, agricultural purposes, etc. Because of the above situations in the supply of fuels, scientists are looking for alternate source of energy, such as solar energy, wind energy, biofuels and biomass. It is estimated that fossil fuel will be used up within 50 years and the scientists and engineers are searching to find out alternative fuel from other sources. This idea of biodiesel came from the German Scientist Rudolf diesel who invented the diesel engines. Commercial production of biodiesel in the United States began in the 1990s.

Presently in some countries are producing oil producing plants to supplement the fuel requirement from biodiesel, specially from jatropha seeds. According to literature review it is found that Jatropha oil is suitable for energy supply for the poor people and it is suitable for domestic lighting in the night, cooking, running small diesel engines etc.

Jatropha Curcas is known as wild plant grows in the forest and some farmers in the upland areas uses as hedges. This plant grows well in wide range of soils and humid areas. Bangladesh is a good place for its cultivation. It has many uses like oil for rural energy supply , cake for fish or animal feed, organic fertilizer, bio-pesticides, medicine, soap etc. Jatropha Plantation is seen where rainfall is 500 to 750 mm and also grows in drought prone areas and where rainfall is scanty (Reinhard et al. 2004). Jatropha can bear fruits for 25 years. Jatropha oil is successfully using with small diesel engines in India, Brazil, Madagascar, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and Myanmar (Heller,1996). Average seed yield is around 6 to 15 ton/ha. Seed contains 25 to 37% oil. India is producing bio-diesel commercially from Jatropha Curcas. Besides, many developed countries have active biodiesel program. Currently biodiesel is produced mainly from field crop oils like rapeseed, sunflower etc. in Europe and soybean in USA. Malaysia utilizes palm oil for biodiesel production while in Nicaragua and other African countries it is produced from Jatropha oil.

The free fatty acid (FFA) content should be less than 1%. It was observed that lesser the FFA in oil better is the biodiesel recovery. Different technologies are currently available and used in the industrial production of biodiesel, which is sold under different trademarks. These units are using sunflower oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, used-frying oil, Jatropha oil, etc. The main objective is to develop system to cultivate Jatropha commercially and to produce bio-diesel in the country.

¹Professorand ²lecturer, Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202.

Specific objectives are:

(1) To verify the cultivation method of jatropha at BAU farm.

(2) To study on extraction methods

3) To study the characteristics of Jatropha seeds and jatropha oil

Materials and Method

Land availability: This is a vital requirement for the introduction of extensive cultivation of Jatropha in the country. High land is available in different districts of Bangladesh. Approximate 40% land of Barind tract and more than 60% land of Modhupur and Bhawal forest areas are available and mostly they are fallow as because of the recent deforestation occurred in those areas by rapid cutting of the trees by the tribal as well as by the forest department. Besides, land in the northern districts are always available due to drought. The land near to the riversides and char areas can be used for jatropha cultivation.

Availability of Jatropha: Jatropha is available in Bangladesh but their characteristics and uses are not studied yet. Now time has come to look into the matter for academic study for generating information for jatropha oil as well as the feed for fish and animal. Chemical or physical characteristics of these trees need to be studied for wide scale cultivation in the country.

Seed availability: Still today Jatropha is not cultivated by the farmers but it is grown in the country as wild plant and is being used for fences in the gardens. These plants should be cultivated and should be classified according to use, seed trial must be done in the farmers field.

Soil: Bangladesh has wide ranges of soil and is suitable to cultivate for any type of tropical and adapted crops. Soil will be tested for suitability of Jatropha cultivation. Preparation of plantation is that pits size is to be maintained at 35cm x 35 cm x 35 cm and, soil characteristics in the pit will be 1/3 sand, 1/3 compost and 1/3 soil (Islam et al. 2006).

Result and Discussion

Jatropha was planted in sandy loam at BAU Farm (Fig.1).

Fig.1 Jatropha plants at BAU Farm

Cultivation method:

Jatropha can be cultivated in wide range of soils. It can grow from seeds as well as from stem cutting. When the stem size is 2cm in diameter, it becomes ready to propagate or multiplication. 30 cm length pieces are cut from the mother plant and planted in the pits in any time of the year. If it is planted in the dry period then little irrigation is required. The plantlet spacing is 1m x 1m. Jatropha can be grown along canals, water streams, boundaries of crop fields, along the roads, along railway lines. In short, the less fertile lands are suitable for this plant. Once the roots penetrate deeper, Jatropha can tolerate acidic or saline soils. It’s growth can be accelerated by using compost fertilizer, cow dung and other fertilizers. Some micronutrients are also helpful in improving productivity. The pH of soil should be 5.5 to 6.5. Bangladesh is an ideal place for the cultivation of Jatropha Curcas (Foidi et. al. 1996).

Expeller for Jatropha:

Many types of expeller is available in different countries of the world, such as in India, South American countries. This machine can be directly imported into the country or can be developed here for experimental purpose. Our old mustard expellers with little modification can be used for Jatropha oil extraction. Oil extractor and refiner is available in the international market and the price is around 30000$. This machine is suitable for commercial production. Manually operated small unit is also available and it can be locally manufactured.

Jatropha production at BAU farm:

Recently 660 plants are planted in the BAU farm for demonstration purpose. The plant is growing well and flowering is seen in the Fig. 3 These plants have been collected from Northern district of Bangladesh and also from Hilly areas. The plant is still wild and need more time for its adaptation through demonstration in the native field.

Table 1 shows the first yield trial at BAU farm. Literature shows that Jatropha seeds contain 25 to 37 % oil. From this information the production of Jatropha oil will be 1500 -1600 liter/ha-year and the present market value will be around Tk. 46000 - 47000 which is roughly two times of paddy cultivation. Besides, Jatropha grows very fast and it can supply biomass to the growers and Jatropha can be grown in low quality soil. After jatropha oil extraction, cake is an excellent source of plant nutrients. Fig 4 describes the recently harvested Jatropha fruit, seed and kernel. The physical properties of the jatropha seeds is shown in Table 2.

a. Jatropha plant b. Jatropha flower c.Jatropha fruit

Fig.2. Jatropha Curcas at BAU campus (Islam,2006)

Table 1: Performance of Jatropha curcas plant at BAU farm

Plant No.	No. of branch	No of Male flower in each branch (%)	No. of Female flower in each branch(%)	No. of fruit in each branch (%)	No. of seed in each fruit	Estimated seed production (ton/ha)
1	24	96	4	3-4	1-3	5-6
2	19	94	6	4-5	1-4	5-7
3	18	95	5	4-5	1-2	4-5

Table 2: Physical properties of Jatropha seeds

Sample number	Weight of seed, g	Number of seed	Volume of seed, cm³	Bulk density, g/cc
1	300.2	590	975	0.307897
2	169.7	322	510	0.332745
3	215.2	418	680	0.316471
4	107.5	227	355	0.302817
5	94.3	171	280	0.336786
6	82	165	250	0.328
7	183.1	381	600	0.305167
8	283.9	584	960	0.295729
9	77.6	158	225	0.344889
10	249.9	493	800	0.312375
Mean	176.34	350.9	563.5	0.318288
STD	84.35411	169.1235	286.1531	0.0164

a) Jatropha fruit at BAU b) Jatropha Fruit after drying

c) Jatropha seed from one fruit d) Kernel of Jatropha seed

Fig. 3. Jatropha fruit, seed and kernel

Potential characteristics of Jatropha oil:

Jatropha oil production from Jatropha Curcas using screw type expeller is using in many countries of the world. Jatropha oil has the similar characteristics of the fossil diesel fuel and it can be directly used to diesel engines. Table 3 shows the characteristics of jatropha oil and comparison with fossil diesel. Jatropha oil will not pollute the air during the engine operation as it contains low amount of sulphur. Besides, it is safe in storage as it has flash point higher than the fossil diesel fuel. Also its viscosity is slightly lower than the fossil diesel which is a good criteria for smooth flow of the oil through the injector.

Table.3 Characteristics of Bio-diesel and comparison with fossil diesel

Variable	Jatropha oil	European standard
Density @ 15°C (kg/m3)	884	860-900
Viscosity at 40°C (mm2/s)	4.9	5-5.0
Flash point (°C)	169	> 101
Cetane number	58-62	>51
Phosphorus (mg/kg)	<1	<10
Sulphur	<1	<10

Source: Islam et al. 2005

Oil extraction by chemical methods (Cold percolation method for measuring the oil percentage): The flow diagram of the jatropha oil production method is shown in Fig.4.

Fig. 4. Flow diagram of the chemical method

With this method, about 37 percent oil can be recovered. The operating cost is much higher.

Oil extraction by Mechanical method:

Traditional and locally made oil expeller is used to produce Jatropha oil. Jatropha oil extraction from this type of expeller is around 15% to 20%. But if we can make some modification on the expeller then higher recovery is possible.

Fig.5. Locally made oil expeller is in operation

Fig.5 shows that locally made oil expeller is using for producing Jatropha oil in Mymensingh. The x -sectional view of this expeller and flow diagram of the operation are shown in Fig 6. Average cost of this type of expeller in the local market is around 60 to 70 thousand taka.

Fig.6 Sectional view of the locally made oil expeller and flow diagram of oil production process

Conclusion

Based on the above description, the following conclusions are drawn:

Soils of Bangladesh is suitable to cultivate Jatropha Curcas. Hilly areas, forest areas and other upland areas such as char land, riverside can be easily taken under Jatropha cultivation. Jatropha oil can be produced from the Jatropha seeds and the technology is simple. The jatropha oil can be directly used to small diesel engines without any modification of the oil structure. Jatropha Curcas cultivation over the traditional crops in Bangladesh will be more profitable and land productivity and labour productivity can be increased many folds in comparison to tea and other crops cultivation in Bangladesh.

References

Foidl, N., G. Foidl, M. Sánchez, M. Mittelbach & S. Hackel (1996): Jatropha curcas L. as a source for the production of biofuel in Nicaragua. Bioresource Technology 58: 77-82.

Heller, Joachim. 1996. Physic nut - Jatropha curcas L. Promoting the conservation and use of underutilized and neglected crops.1. Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben/ International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome.

Islam, M. P. and M.D. Hussain, 2005. Biodiesel production from Jatropha Curcas published in 12 Tri-university conference held at Jiangshu University, 156-160 p. China.

Islam, M.P. and M.D.Hussain, 2006. Prospect of bio-diesel production from Jatropha curcas in Bangladesh , J. Bangladesh Soc. Agric. Sci. Technol., 3 (1&2): 29-32.

Reinhard K. Henning (2004): Integrated Rural Development by Utilization of Jatropha curcas L. (JCL) as Raw Material and as Renewable Energy - Economy & Dissemination Strategy.

Name: PROF. DR. MD. DAULAT HUSSAIN

Present address: Department of Farm Power and Machinery

Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology

Bangladesh Agricultural University

Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

Fax: + 880 91 55810

Tel.: + 880 91 55045 (res.)

Mob.:+8801716411105

E-.mail: dhussainbau@yahoo.com