Currently our company does not grow Jatropha but supply seeds and saplings for plantation. Our company will plant Jatropha, if we get joint venture financial partner, for Plantation, Seed Collection, Oil Extraction and BioDiesel Manufacture. For forming a joint venture see Joint Venture. We are keen on joint venture partnership initially for seed collection, oil extraction and manufacture of Bio-Fertilizer.

Our target is to collect 700 tons of seeds in first year and expanding steadily.

Currently the price of jatropha oil is 1 Euro per liter. This will come down by 10% after 4 to 5 years.

So far plantation is done in 100,000 hectares and it is going up by 50,000 hectares every year.

Indian target is to set up in 3 to 5 million hectares in 10 years time.

Jatropha is good for employment for rural poor people. The oil price for biodiesel manufacture will be viable only when price of petroleum crude rises to US$ 100 per barrel. Currently it is used in Soap manufacture, as other edible oils, like palm, used so far are very expensive (prices have doubled, about Euro 1.5 per liter). Jatropha has bright future in India, as our country is densely populated and soil is good due to largly organic farming techniques used for last hundreds of years. In countries in Africa where it is not populated, the expences for roads and townships that need to be set up are prohibitive. This makes africa less attractive. In south east asia, labour costs are double that of India.

India's share will always be more than 50% as the land is organic and labour is quite inexpensive. There is alot of manual plantation and pruning work, so that it can not be mechanized.

It will take 10 years to satisfy local demand and export to other countries. There will be some exports to nearby countries like China (biggest market), Bangladesh etc. In China and BanglaDesh, there is very little land where it can be grown (Either it is fertile or it is desert land or salty land).

1 liter of oil is produced from 3 to 4 kgs of seeds. The seed cost is currently around Rs. 12 to 14 per kg and cost of extraction is Rs. 2 per liter of oil. (1 Euro= Rs. 60).

In India, nobody can hold more than 50 acres of land, hence most plantations are scattered on small lands. These are owned by the people who work on their own land. These are close to their villages. These are taken care manually, and yield best results.

There are two methods. Oil expeller is for small activity (1 to 10 tons per day) and Solvent extraction for capacities more than 100 tons per day. You can get 25% oil in first case while 30% in second case.

Jatropha is planted in 2 X 2 meters square configuration. This allows us to plant 1,000 plants per acre or 2,500 plants per hectare. Castor is planted as intercrop for first two years

Contract farming works well where the supply is much more than demand and the processing machinery is expensive and processing is difficult. It is not the case in Jatropha. Farmers may sell it to some one offering higher price than the contract price.

These are Jatropha Curcas, Pongamia Pinnata, Mahua, Castor, Simarouba etc. Jatropha Curcas, Pongamia Pinnata and Mahua are plantations which give non edible oil. Castor is a 6 month crop which gives non edible oil and is grown as intercrop within Plantations. Simarouba is a plantation which gives edible oil.

You can get 2.5 tons of Castor seeds in first and second year and 5 tons of Jatropha seed from third to fifth year. You can get higher yields after 5 years. Jatropha will yield seeds for 40 to 50 years.

In Power Generating sets, oil is burnt at high temperature (100^o C or higher), at which viscocity reduces considerably. Any unit generating 1 megawatt or higher can burn the oil directly.

An expeller plant is required to get oil from seeds. The size of expeller unit can be 1 MT / day (Capital Cost Rs. 70,000) or 1 MT / hour (Capital Cost Rs. 3,00,000) or 2 MT / hour (Capital Cost Capital Cost Rs. 5,00,000). These values are indicative and you should get fresh quotes from expeller manufacturers. Depending on the capacity of the plant the cost of expelling oil will be between Re. 0.19 per litre to Re 0.90 per litre of oil.

Karanj Plantation takes a long time (5 to 10 years) compared to Jatropha (2 years). However tree is much stronger. New Gurgaon Township (HUDA), near Delhi, has around 50,000 trees, planted along the roads 10 years back. Most of these are now 5 to 7 meters tall and bear about 250 kgs of seed every year. These can grow in any soil. Gurgaon has sandy desert soil. These are planted 4 meters apart, to get best yield. Hence around 250 plants can be grown in 1 acre. Alongwith it you can grow other crops like Castor in the land in between to get some income till you can earn from karanj trees. BioDiesel manufacturers all over the world are buyers for the same. The oil can be used as a fuel in stoves. You can sell the seeds at Rs. 8 to 10 per kg. The cost of plantation for Karanj is Rs. 15,000 per acre and for Jatropha it is Rs. 12,500 per acre. Presently there are no guidelines for Subsidy for Karanj. Generally the Karanj and Jatropha trees are planted together for short term and long term income.

To set up a biodiesel plant, you should have your own Jatropha plantation. Oil is currently not easily available. To set up 1,000 liters per day plant, you need a plantation in 200 hectares.

Oils having high FFA can not be converted to BioDiesel using trans esterification process. The process for that is acid / base process and is capital intensive. Hence such materials are better used for soap making.