Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Birth of a New Energy Crop

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Jatropha, Challenges for a New Energy Crop

Abstract

Factors, such as overpopulation, resource reduction and loss of biodiversity are considered most threatening for humanity and their interaction in the history of mankind are shortly revisited. These are the driving forces that led governments worldwide to the implementation of renewable energies. Among, the renewable energies that started to contribute to the energy grid, biofuels are considered as an obligate step. Here, an attempt has been made to overview the particular case of Jatropha curcas L. and elicit how the international scientific community has concertedly contributed to draw it from anonymity in just few years and worked to implement it as an alternative biodiesel option to feed the energy grid.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Attané I (2002) China’s family planning policy: an overview of its past and future. Stud Fam Plann 33(1):103–113

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Basha SD, Sujatha M (2009) Genetic analysis of Jatropha species and interspecific hybrids of Jatropha curcas using nuclear and organelle specific markers. Euphytica 168:197–214

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bourne JK Jr (2007) Biofuels: green dreams. Natl Geogr Mag 41–59 Available from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/10/biofuels/biofuels-text.html [accessed August 10, 2012]

  • Carels N (2009) Jatropha curcas: a review. In: Kader JC, Delseny M (eds) Advances in botanical research. Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp 39–86

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Carels N (2011) The challenge of bioenergies: an overview. In: dos Santos Bernardes MA (ed) Biofuel’s engineering process technology, 1st ed. InTech, Rijeka, pp 23–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Carvalho CR, Clarindo WR, Praça MM, Araújo FS, Carels N (2008) Genome size, base composition and karyotype of Jatropha curcas L., an important biofuel plant. Plant Sci 174:613–617

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Costa GGL, Cardoso KC, Del Bem LEV, Lima AC, Cunha MAS et al (2010) Transcriptome analysis of the oil-rich seed of the bioenergy crop Jatropha curcas L. BMC Genomics 11:462

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Costanza R, d’Arge R, de Groot R, Farber S, Grasso M, Hannon B et al (1997) The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387:253–260

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Darussalam B (2007) Last-Gasp effort to save Borneo’s tropical rainforests. Science 317:192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Vries BJM, van Vuuren DP, Hoogwijk MM (2007) Renewable energy sources: their global potential for the first-half of the 21st century at a global level: an integrated approach. Energy Policy 35:2590–2610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demirbas A (2008) Biofuels sources, biofuel policy, biofuel economy and global biofuel projections. Energy Convers Manag 49:2106–2116

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eugenia Corria M, Melian Cobas V, Silva Lora E (2006) Perspectives of Stirling engines use for distributed generation in Brazil. Energy Policy 34:3402–3408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairless D (2007) The little shrub that could – maybe. Nature 449:652–655

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fargione J, Hill J, Tilman D, Polasky S, Hawthorne P (2008) Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt. Science 319:1235–1238

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Francis G, Edinger R, Becker K (2005) A concept for simultaneous wasteland reclamation, fuel production, and socio-economic development in degraded areas in India: need, potential and perspectives of Jatropha plantations. Nat Resour Forum 29:12–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gomes KA, Almeida TC, Gesteira AS, Lôbo IP, Guimarães ACR, de Miranda AB et al (2010) ESTs from seeds to assist the selective breeding of Jatropha curcas L. for oil and active compounds. Genomics Insights 3:29–56

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gui MM, Lee KT, Bhatia S (2008) Feasibility of edible oil vs. non-edible oil vs. waste edible oil as biodiesel feedstock. Energy 33:1646–1653

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Henning RK (2005) Assessment of the impact of the dissemination of “the Jatropha System” on the ecology of the rural area and the social and economic situation of the rural population (target group) in selected countries in Africa. Available from http://www.underutilized-species.org/Documents/PUBLICATIONS/jatropha_curcas_africa.pdf[Accessed August 10, 2012]

  • Hvistendahl M (2010) Has China outgrown the one-child policy? Science 329(5998):1458–1461

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jumbe CBL, Msiska FBM, Madjera M (2009) Biofuels development in Sub-Saharan Africa: are the policies conducive? Energy Policy 37(11):4980–4986

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karanam KR, Bhavanasi J (2010) Jatropha interspecific hybrid. US patent US 2010/0287820 A1 1–6

    Google Scholar 

  • King AJ, Li Y, Graham IA (2011) Profiling the developing Jatropha curcas L. seed transcriptome by pyrosequencing. Bioenerg Res 4:211–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kleiner K (2007) Civil aviation faces green challenge. Nature 448:120–121

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar A, Sharma S (2008) An evaluation of multipurpose oil seed crop for industrial uses (Jatropha curcas L.): a review. Ind Crops Prod 28:1–10

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Laurance WF (2007) Switch to corn promotes amazon deforestation. Science 318:1721

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Legowo EH (2007) Development of alternative energy in Indonesia. 5th Asian petroleum technology symposium, Jakarta, 2007

    Google Scholar 

  • Lonngren KE, Bai E-W (2008) On the global warming problem due to carbon dioxide. Energy Policy 36:1567–1568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lovelock JE, Margulis L (1974) Atmospheric homeostasis by and for the biosphere- The Gaia hypothesis. Tellus 26:2–10

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Malhi Y, Roberts JT, Betts RA, Killeen TJ, Li W, Nobre CA (2008) Climate change, deforestation, and the fate of the Amazon. Science 319:169–172

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Miles L, Kapos V (2008) Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation: global land-use implications. Science 320:1454–1455

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Misra RD, Murthy MS (2011) Jatropha – The future fuel of India. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 15(2):1350–1359

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nadeau R (2006) The environment endgame: mainstream economics, ecological disaster, and human survival. Rutgers University Press, London, p 214

    Google Scholar 

  • Natarajan P, Parani M (2011) De novo assembly and transcriptome analysis of five major tissues of Jatropha curcas L. using GS FLX titanium platform of 454 pyrosequencing. BMC Genomics 12:191. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-12-191

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nathans J (2010) China’s plan flawed but courageous. Science 330:1625

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Odling-Smee L (2007) Biofuels bandwagon hits a rut. Nature 446:483

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Orleans L (1975) China’s experience on population control: the elusive model. World Dev 3(7–8):497–525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pandey KK, Pragya N, Sahoo PK (2011) Life cycle assessment of small-scale high-input Jatropha biodiesel production in India. Appl Energy 88(12):4831–4839

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pandey VC, Singh K, Singh JS, Kumar A, Singh B, Singh RP (2012) Jatropha curcas: a potential biofuel plant for sustainable environmental development. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 16(5):2870–2883

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Parthiban KT, Kumar RS, Thiyagarajan P, Subbulakshmi V, Vennila S, Rao MG (2009) Hybrid progenies in Jatropha – a new development. Curr Sci 96:815–823

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Popluechai S, Breviario D, Mulpuri M, Makkar HPS, Raorane M, Reddy AR et al (2009) Narrow genetic and apparent phenetic diversity in Jatropha curcas: initial success with generating low phorbol ester interspecific hybrids. hdl:10101/npre.2009.2782.1

    Google Scholar 

  • Reddy KRK, Swamy NR, Bahadur B (1987) Cross incompatibility between Ricinus and Jatropha. Plant Cell Incompat Newslett USA 17:60–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothengatter W (2010) Climate change and the contribution of transport: basic facts and the role of aviation. Transp Res Part D 15:5–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sato S, Hirakawa H, Isobe S, Fukai E, Watanabe A, Kato M et al (2011) Sequence analysis of the genome of an oil-bearing tree, Jatropha curcas L. DNA Res 18:65–76

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Searchinger T, Heimlich R, Houghton RA, Dong F, Elobei A, Fabiosa J et al (2008) Use of U.S. croplands for biofuels increases greenhouse gases through emissions from land-use change. Science 319:1238–1240

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Silitonga AS, Atabani AE, Mahlia TMI, Masjuki HH, Badruddin IA, Mekhilef S (2011) A review on prospect of Jatropha curcas for biodiesel in Indonesia. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 15(8):3733–3756

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Simões AF, Kligerman DC, La Rovere EL, Maroun MR, Barata M, Obermaie M (2010) Enhancing adaptive capacity to climate change: the case of smallholder farmers in the Brazilian semi-arid region. Environ Sci Policy 13:801–808

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone R (2007) Can palm oil plantations come clean? Science 317:1491

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sudheer-Pamidiamarri DVN, Pandya N, Reddy MP, Radhakrishnan T (2009) Comparative study of interspecific genetic divergence and phylogenic analysis of genus Jatropha by RAPD and AFLP. Mol Biol Rep 36:901–907

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sujatha M (2006) Genetic improvement of Jatropha curcas L. possibilities and prospects. Indian J Agrofor 8(2):58–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Sujatha M, Prabakaran AJ (2003) New ornamental Jatropha through interspecific hybridization. Genet Resour Crop Evol 50:75–82

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tomkiewicz M (2006) Global warming: science, money and self-preservation. C R Chimie 9:172–179

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Venter O, Meijaard E, Wilson K (2008) Strategies and alliances needed to protect forest from palm-oil industry. Nature 451:16

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vertès AA, Inui M, Yukawa H (2006) Implementing biofuels on a global scale. Nat Biotechnol 24:761–764

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wake DB, Vredenburg VT (2008) Are we in the midst of the sixth mass extinction? A view from the world of amphibians. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:11466–11473

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang CM, Liu P, Yi C, Gu K, Sun F, Li L et al (2011) A first generation microsatellite- and SNP-based linkage map of Jatropha. PLoS One 6(8):e23632

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wu W, Huang J, Deng X (2009) Potential land for plantation of Jatropha curcas as feed- stocks for biodiesel in China. Science China-Earth Sciences 39(12):1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu WG, Huang JK, Deng XZ (2010) Potential land for plantation of Jatropha curcas as feedstocks for biodiesel in China. Sci China 53(1):1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang H, Zhou Y, Liu J (2009) Land and water requirements of biofuel and implications for food supply and the environment in China. Energy Policy 37(5):1876–1885

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yue TX, Fan ZM, Chen CF, Sun XF, Li BL (2011) Surface modeling of global terrestrial ecosystems under three climate change scenarios. Ecol Model 222:2342–2361

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

N. Carels is grateful to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) for providing a research fellowship from the Centro de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Saúde (CDTS).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Genômica Funcional e Bioinformática, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Rio de Janerio, RJ, Brazil

    Nicolas Carels

Authors
  1. Nicolas Carels
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicolas Carels .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. of Functional Genomics and Biology, Fiocruz/IOC, Av.Brasil 4365, Manguinhos, 21040-360, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Nicolas Carels

  2. Crop Improvement Section, Principal Scientist, Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad, 500 030, India

    Mulpuri Sujatha

  3. Department of Botany, University of Warangal, Warangal, India

    Bir Bahadur

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Carels, N. (2012). The Birth of a New Energy Crop. In: Carels, N., Sujatha, M., Bahadur, B. (eds) Jatropha, Challenges for a New Energy Crop. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4806-8_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation