Biodiesel from Jatropha Curcas

H&WB seeks to soften the spiralling cost of energy and the tightening world crude oil supply by developing a Jatropha Curcas biodiesel program. Blending of biodiesel with petroleum diesel and fuel ethanol with gasoline gives impetus to the role of biofuels in today’s energy economy.

H&WB, with its qualifications and expertise in project development, can ensure successful implementation of the program and its component projects. It has progressed considerably in its pioneering Jatropha Biodiesel Project in Mindanao, with a thriving Jatropha “farm-nursery” managed and developed in collaboration with an NGO. It continues to consolidate vast landholdings in strict adherence to laws, effectively organize cooperatives with strong capacity-building programs, and work with technology providers with cost-efficient oil extraction equipment and transesterification plants.

Program Goal

The program’s ultimate goal is to develop Jatropha plantations for the extraction of Jatropha crude oil (JCO) and its subsequent transesterification into Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME). The program shall cater to the domestic and export markets for JCO and JME. The program addresses not only sustainable development objectives in the energy and transport sectors but also enhances socio-economic development through employment and income generation particularly in more depressed areas of the country such as Mindanao. Jatropha is H&WB’s answer to climate change mitigation and adaptation. It is a clean indigenous alternative to fossil fuels that does not compete with food crops for agricultural land. With the country’s vast idle and unproductive lands and underemployed farmers, Jatropha is the energy crop of choice in a carbon-constrained economically-challenged world.

Development Plan

Considering the legal and socio-economic implications of various types of land ownership, H&WB has developed three primary models for the development of plantations:

1. For public lands;
2. For privately-owned lands, and,
3. For lands occupied by Indigenous People

Towards the setting up of additional plantations in program areas, HW&B will execute memoranda of agreement with authorized stakeholders. H&WB will immediately:

1. Conduct a master plan and feasibility study leading to a comprehensive, techno-scientific cultivation and plantation development plan for the specified area;
2. Structure, arrange and bring in a financing package; and,
3. Undertake hands-on management during project execution stage.

Furthermore, HW&B will provide technology, seeds/seedlings for the plantations as well as assure the purchase of the fruit and/or the crude oil output, and provide over-all management direction for each project area.

H&WB has identified tracts of mostly idle or under-utilized lands in Mindanao. These tracts of land shall be developed in phases, with candidate-lands investigated and screened for suitability and inclusion in the development program. Currently, a development agreement for an aggregate of 10,500 hectares is in place, starting with 100 hectares in Nunungan, Lanao Del Norte.

The Pioneering Biodiesel Project in Mindanao

The strategy for the Pioneering Project is to develop a 100-hectare Jatropha nursery and use the initial seeds and seedlings for a 500-hectare demonstration plantation that will supply the seeds, seedlings and cuttings for commercial plantations. The Jatropha nursery has been in operation for over a year and the establishment of the demonstration plantation is underway.

The Project’s initial PhP500 Million worth 10,500-hectare plantation and extraction plant in Nunungan will be developed in three (3) years and is estimated conservatively to have an optimum yield of over 16,000 MT tons per year of dried Jatropha seeds producing over 16 Million liters of Jatropha crude oil (JCO) per year. These figures are based on very conservative yield estimates of 6MT/ha/year of dried seeds with 30% oil content. Internal rate of return (IRR) from conservative JCO revenues alone is over 27%, with a payback time of less than three years from the last planting year. The IRR is expected to be higher considering the anticipated revenues from other by-products, the high yield seeds from the nursery with oil content reaching 40%, and most especially, the rising cost of biodiesel feedstock. Further benefits can also be achieved for the farmers through appropriate intercropping with small-shade cash crops.

The Project’s expected products range from Jatropha seeds, seedlings/cuttings, JCO, JME and by-products such as organic fertilizer from the seed cake and glycerol. Expressions of interest from local and foreign investors, equity providers and product off-takers have been received.