And entrepreneurs see it as a future cash crop for Florida.
"Last year, soy oil was $1.50 a gallon and nobody was looking at us.
Now, it's $3 a gallon and everyone is looking" at jatropha as a future
biofuel source, said Paul Dalton, a Washington-based attorney who is
involved with growing the tree - Jatropha curcas - in Florida, India and elsewhere.
Oil from this variety of jatropha has attracted more attention as
prices for other biodiesel oils such as soy, palm and canola have
skyrocketed.
Dalton, chief executive officer of Alexandria, Va.-based My Dream
Fuel LLC, has planted 1.26 million jatropha seedlings from varieties
specially selected and cloned for commercialization on 12 acres south
of LaBelle. Last year, he sold out of 12,000 plants in four days.
Beginning May 15, this year's seedlings will go out to citrus
growers looking for a replacement for groves ravaged by canker and
greening diseases and others wanting to keep their agricultural
exemption.
"It is not a get-rich-quick scheme at all," Dalton said. "It's five
years before they get to 100 percent production. In two years, they
will start making money. That is a lot faster than citrus.
"Any biodiesel refiner will purchase it in a heartbeat. At current price levels, growers will make over $2,000 an acre."
Plant used around the world
Biodiesel is made from natural sources such as vegetable oils and
animal fats for use in diesel engines. It can be used at full strength
or blended with diesel made from petroleum.
Jatropha curcas, or physic nut as it is sometimes called, is
a poisonous small tree or shrub with a smooth gray bark grown for
medicine and biodiesel in countries such as India, China and Brazil.
Inside each of its golf-ball-size fruits are three pebble-size toxic,
inedible seeds that can be pressed to make biodiesel.
Jatropha can be grown in poor soils and doesn't require heavy
cultivation, fertilization or irrigation, Lee County extension agent
Roy Beckford said.
Just entering the jatropha arena are two Palm Beach County
restaurateurs and a Miami-based spice importer who this year formed
Palm Beach Gardens-based International Clean Energy LLC.
The three men - Tim Gwinnell, 51, a co-owner of Abbey Road Grill
& Raw Bar in Palm Beach Gardens; Chris Ambrose, 45, owner of Java
Room in the Ibis development in West Palm Beach; and Edwin Cho, 52,
owner of Spices USA Inc. in Medley - believe jatropha oil could help
solve the nation's energy crisis.
"Jatropha is of interest because, of all the seeds that are known
that produce oil for diesel, jatropha has the highest oil content,"
Gwinnell said. "With diesel prices up, it makes sense. You can't grow
gasoline chemically, but you can grow diesel."
With the assistance of Art Kirstein, agricultural economic
development coordinator for the Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension
Service, they're beginning a three-year project to grow jatropha and
collect data to assess the tropical plant for conditions here in the
subtropics. They also will assess the seeds' oil content. They're
working with several dozen plants started from seeds obtained from
offshore sources as well as Beckford, who has been doing similar work
with jatropha for two years.
"This is just another option. People researching biofuels are
looking into all kinds of things," Kirstein said. "We know we can grow
it in Florida, and we know it produces oil. The issue is whether it is
feasible to do it economically."
Beckford, who is scheduled to speak at an international
JatrophaWorld conference in June in Miami, said his job is to "sober up
the hype and look at the agronomic requirements."
"We need to know more before we do any kind of commercial stuff," he said.
Beckford, who is working with 1,500 seedlings that Dalton donated,
said he's seen interest in jatropha increase and receives 50 to 60
phone calls a week about it. He knows of at least three citrus growers
who are getting ready to plant 10-acre plots near Arcadia.
Wagner Vendrame, an associate professor at the University of
Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center, also cautions that
more research is needed before growers take the plunge into jatropha in
Florida.
"Some companies are claiming they have seeds with tremendous yields
such as 1,000 gallons an acre. We don't know what the production will
be," Vendrame said, adding that there could be pest and disease
problems that are as yet unknown.
Food supply unaffected
One benefit that jatropha offers is that oil can be made from a
plant that, unlike corn or sugar, is not part of the food supply, said
George Philippidis, associate director of the Applied Research Center
at Miami's Florida International University.
"Things are happening with jatropha around the world, primarily in
developing countries. There, the idea is for farmers to make a living,"
Philippidis said. "The idea here would be to grow it and produce
biodiesel for Florida."
And there is a market for the product.
Peggy Mathews, government relations director at Agri-Source in Dade
City, the only biodiesel company in Florida now producing fuel, said
that if jatropha oil were available in the state at a competitive
price, the company would probably buy it.
"If they can get the oil to the quality we could use, we couldn't
take enough of it, as long as it is produced economically," Mathews
said. Agri-Source now makes biodiesel from chicken renderings.
Long-term, International Clean Energy's partners envision growing
jatropha for biodiesel production in Florida. As a start, Gwinnell has
obtained an import certificate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
that gives him permission to bring jatropha seeds from 22 countries.
"We will bring in different seeds from different places," Gwinnell said.
Ambrose said he's become "quite passionate about clean air," which
led him to pursue the alternative-energy industry. "I decided jatropha
was the right way to go in a business sense," he said.
And Cho said the more he learns about jatropha, the more workable it seems.
"It's not complicated," Cho said.
Dalton, the MyDreamFuel CEO, expects to open a $6.8 million facility
for cloning jatropha plants at the Fort Myers State Farmers Market in
May and hopes that within two years farmers can bring their jatropha
seeds there to be crushed.
Philippidis thinks the outlook for jatropha as a fuel crop in South Florida is promising.
"We have, I think, all the parts of the puzzle that we can put together," he said. "I think it is going to happen."
