Scientists cast doubt on profitability of jatropha biodiesel

The optimism that prevailed ten years ago about jatropha curcas as a biodiesel crop has evaporated in the face of market realities. One of the latest victims, Belgian biotech firm Quinvita, closed in January, with Filip Lesaffer of Quinvita shareholders Think2act telling the Belgian economic daily De Tijd that the company had lost too much money and the pipeline of projects had completely dried up. Studies funded by Belgian development aid and carried out by researchers from Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, part of the University of Liège, in collaboration with local farmers in the Dialocoto area of Senegal, concluded that planting jatropha as a monoculture and using external labour on large areas was not a profitable model.