BELIZE EXPERIMENTING WITH DIESEL SUBSTITUTE JATROPHA OIL PRODUCTION

BELIZE GOVERNMENT CENTRAL FARM RESEARCH STATION ACCEPTS CHALLENGE TO DO COSTING STUDY FOR JATROPHA DIESEL PROCESSING.

Jatropha plant for the production of agro diesel fuel goes back to World War 2, when it was then used to produce an agro based diesel substitute for oil
The current argument is that; nobody locally knows if it would pay to grow and process Jatropha oil, as an energy substitute for saving of local foreign exchange, used to pay for imported diesel. Labor costs are relatively high in Belize. About half of what they are in the USA, but double of what they are in Africa, or Sri Lanka.
The enzyme PAPAIN was one such failed experiment carried out some 40 years ago in Sarteneja, on a 90 acre plot of PAPAYA plants by Ray Auxillou of Caye Caulker. It was found the world price in New York was lower than the cost we could produce the enzyme PAPAIN in Belize. We could not compete in labor costs with Africa and Sri Lanka and Burma.
The question now arises about the Jatropha oil as a diesel substitute. The plant grows wild in Belize and most of the tropical world.
The OAS has supplied funding for a pilot project at the Central Farm Government MAF (?)
research grounds. A five acre plot of the Jatropha plant is being established at Central Farm and will serve as a data collection facility for interested farmers, researchers and other scientists.
The email for this project is: Clifford Martinez Jr., Research and Development station at Central Farm in the Western Cayo District rdcfarm@yahoo.com, or telephone 501 804 2129