Integrated use of Jatropha

Publikations-Art

Kongressbeitrag

Autoren

Idakiev, H.N.; Pudel, F; Romuli, S; Müller, J; Makkar, H; Latif, S; Karaj, S; Probst, L; Becker, K

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Tagungsname

12th Euro Fed Lipid Congress

Tagungsort

Montpellier, France

Tagungsdatum

14 - 17 September 2014

Schlagworte

Jatropha

Jatropha curcas L. is cultivated for its oil, a promising high quality feedstock for biodiesel production. As Jatropha can grow on marginal wasteland and it is non-edible due to the presence of toxic phorbol esters, there is no competition between "food and fuel". In recent years a number of investments in the large scale production of Jatropha have been made. The global Jatropha plantation is projected to reach 12.8 million hectares by 2015 as against only 0.94 million hectares in 2008 (GEXSI, 2008).
Typically, the oil is extracted from Jatropha seeds by mechanical pressing. While the oil is further processed to biodiesel, the remaining seed material (press cake) is mostly used as organic fertilizer with low economic value. This kind of Jatropha seed processing does not allow full value addition of all co-products obtained in the process. Therefore, our aim was to develop an integrated holistic approach to sustainably use all Jatropha co-products obtained in the process of oil extraction for biodiesel production.
Processes like de-hulling of Jatropha fruits, de-shelling of the seeds, use of shells and fruit husk as energy source, oil extraction from the kernel by pressing with additives or by using enzymes, and finally detoxification of the resulting pressed kernels or of protein fractions from the enzyme-assisted oil extraction have been integrated in a multi-functional process chain. So far efficient utilization of Jatropha kernel meal has been restricted because of the presence of phorbol esters which cause toxicity to animals. The detoxified Jatropha meal produced from our integrated process can be included in the diet of fish and other animal species as a substitute for fishmeal or soymeal. Furthermore, to increase profit the phorbol esters present in the oil are extracted (before it is taken for biodiesel production), for use in various agricultural and pharmaceutical applications. The extraction of phorbol esters from the oil also makes the biodiesel production chain friendly to the workers.
Our contribution will give an overview of the integrated multi-functional Jatropha process chain and present first results. This process is expected to enhance economic, social and environment sustainability of Jatropha based biodiesel production chain.