In a corner of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Researcher Xu Zengfu picked off a fruit, broke it apart, and exposed the gray-black seed, then he lit it with a lighter.
"The oil content of this fruit is of 40%, it can be squeezed for clean bio-diesel", Xu Zengfu said that the plant is called the Jatropha curcas, and is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, suitable for the arid, barren hill slope cultivation. It "does not competing against grains for land and doesn't struggle for fertilizer against the farmland. Thus is recognized as one of the most potential energy plants across the world.
Not long ago, Air China used aviation biofuels for a 747 on the first successful test flight using. Half of the fuel used is conventional Aviation fuel and half aviation bio-fuel using jatropha as raw materials. Do not need to use the aircraft and engine modifications that do not require new construction and renovation of the fuel storage, and can be directly used mixed with conventional fossil fuels.
However, currently the production of energy plants represented by Jatropha curcas around the world is generally too low, and is not suitable for large-scale cultivation. With low yield and high cost of planting, it is unable to to meet the development needs of the bio-diesel industry or achieve industrialization.
Regarding the bottlenecks of lack of improved varieties of high and stable yield of Jatropha, Chinese Academy of Sciences Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden established 4 research groups with more than 40 researchers to concentrate to tackle the problems, who didn't take a break for the lunar new year. Chen Jin said: "According to our calculation, the average yield of jatropha is less than 100 kg, if the yield per mu is increased to 500 kg, we will be able to extract more than 150 kg of diesel, and it will have a high economic value. At that time, the dream for the biological energy to become alternatives for part of the oil will come close to reality. "
In the nearby star oil vine forest, the fruits of the vines could be refined out "deep sea fish oil."
According to Chen Jin, the star oil vine, also known as South America oil vine, living in the Andes region of South America, has been used by the original inhabitant and the local indigenous people for 3,000 years. Last year Lu Yongxiang, academician visited South America and brought back a small amount of seeds. Star oil vine seed is very peculiar, it is considered to be able to squeeze the world's best vegetable oil similar to the expensive deep sea fish oil, rich in fat, protein, amino acids, as well as a variety of vitamins and tocopherols.
Star Oil vine is hard to plant, and it is not easy for crops from the South America to grow in China," Chen Jin said, "after more than 4 years of research and practice, the yield exceeds 150 kg per mu, with the production time of 10-15 years, it succeeded in filling the blank of the lack of high-grade edible oil plant resources in domestic tropical regions.
"Over the years, we have spent a lot of hard work in these two energy plants jatropha and Star Oil vine; many scientists stay in the experimental ground and in the laboratory all the year round," Chen said, "We hope that our research and study could do good to the lives of the people and the region's economic and social development of the southwest earlier."
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