Eco-Aviation Channel

A jatropha factory down under?

By Geoffrey Thomas
Eco-Aviation Today, January 12, 2009, p.3

Australia is emerging as a possible major source of feedstocks for second-generation biofuel such as the hardy jatropha curcas. Speaking to media after the first successful sustainable biofuel test flight, Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe suggested that the massive arid regions of northern Australia would be an ideal region for cultivation.

Currently, fast-growing jatropha is labeled a noxious weed by the Australian states--Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia--considered suitable for growing it. Fyfe is hopeful that authorities may consider reclassifying now that its potential has been demonstrated. "My sense is there's an opportunity to revisit it," he said.

The plant is harvested manually and this, Fyfe explained, to some degree influences where it is grown. However, as mechanical harvesting is developed this will change the economics.

While conceding that the falling price of crude may disrupt the impetus for alternative fuels, he takes a long view and reminded the industry that the last six months showed that the price of oil does not reflect the cost of getting it out of the ground. He warned that new discoveries, such as the deep sea fields off Brazil and the tar sands of Canada, are far more expensive than the oilfields of the Middle East. "We're confident the cost of producing jatropha biofuel is cheaper than the cost of extracting oil from these new fields," he said.

In the longer term, Fyfe hopes that the introduction of biofuels will help stabilize fuel prices. "The perception of oil is that it is a finite resource, whereas biofuels are far less finitely constrained in supply. In theory, and in time, that should reduce to a degree the supply and demand volatility."

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