BMBF: Efficient extraction and use of oil, and production of feed grade protein concentrate and seed meal from Jatropha curcas seeds for inclusion in monogastric, fish and ruminant feeds

The Chinese government has shown large interest in building up national biodiesel supply as an alternative to petroleum and natural gas that are largely being imported. As a result, a special Energy Forest Program has been launched to establish large-scale plantations of Jatropha curcas Linnaeus (hereafter referred to as JCL) in the degraded mountainous areas of southwest China. Growing JCL on marginal lands avoids competition for arable land with food grains and contributes to solving the problem of sloping barren lands.

In addition to the growing demand for fuels in China, demand for livestock products has increased remarkably in both rural and urban areas during the last two decades. By using livestock feed more efficiently, livestock output from China now reaches a world market share of about 50% (American Soybean Association, 2009; Bruinsma, 2003). This has intensified the use of protein feed resources, particularly obtained from soybean, rapeseed and cottonseed. To secure this feed supply for the livestock industry, policy makers need to critically assess available options. Importing feedstuff or investing in feed production abroad would ease the shortage of production resources in China, but would create dependency on other countries and expose the sector to price fluctuations in world markets. To produce the feed domestically, the feed industry would need alternative energy and protein crops, and efficient production technologies.

JCL might be an attractive option also in this respect. The crop has a high content of inedible oil that is used for producing biodiesel. The oil cake, a waste product of the oil extraction, is rich in protein but toxic for animals. Recently developed detoxification technologies make the crude protein from seed meal suitable for animal feeding. The emerging JCL sector in China is therefore shaped by the three factors of energy, environment, and agriculture. Based on this potential, the Chinese government has made large investments in JCL in only 4 years. It established large-scale plantations of millions of hectares, mostly in the rural areas in southwest China. In spite of the large-scale investment in JCL plantations and oil extraction facilities, so far biodiesel has not been produced from JCL in China. As a consequence, the potential of JCL biodiesel and detoxified seed meal for livestock feeding has not been exploited yet. This study analyzes the main factors of JCL oil extraction for biodiesel and seeks to shed light on the question as to why biodiesel from JCL has not materialized in southwestern China.

The specific objective of this study is to understand the various constraints along the value chain of JCL. The study analyzes in detail the segments from JCL seed production to seed processing. At each stage of the JCL chain, we analyze the cost structure and value adding to products and by-products. From this we assess the competitive advantage of JCL as compared to other types of feedstock. Our results lead to suggestions on how to improve the competiveness of the JCL chain.