Cultivating Jatropha Curcas for Biodiesel Production

So far, the cultivation of the Jatropha curcas plant was unsuccessful and unsustainable for producing biodiesel. But why? And can it be lucrative while simultaneously achieving poverty alleviation, creating jobs under the constraints of efficient use of resources such as land and water?

These questions are met in Nirza Fabiola Castro Gonzáles's paper, in which she analyses 22 cases of Jatropha curcas cultivation worldwide for producing biodiesel, pinpointing influential components of the biodiesel production and how they are connected. In addition, the article gives recommendations to the main actors under ecological and socio-economic criteria to ensure a sustainable production of Jatropha curcas oil in regions with appropriate climatic conditions for the plant's viability.

Nizza Fabiola Castro Gonzáles was supervised by the Wuppertal Institute for her PhD thesis, for which she also conducted this analysis. It was published in Energy, volume 112, and can be purchased via ScienceDirect.