New Wonder Weed to Fuel Cars?

Hugh Pickens writes "Jatropha, an ugly, fast-growing and poisonous weed that has been used as a remedy for constipation, may someday power your car. The plant, resilient to pests and resistant to drought, produces seeds with up to 40 per cent oil content that when crushed can be burned in a diesel car while the residue can be processed into biomass for power plants. Although jatropha has been used for decades by farmers in Africa as a living fence because its smell and taste repel grazing animals, the New York Times reports that jatropha may replace biofuels like ethanol that require large amounts of water, fertilizer, and energy, making their environmental benefits limited. Jatropha requires no pesticides, little water other than rain and no fertilizer beyond the nutrient-rich seed cake left after oil is pressed from its nuts. Poor farmers living close to the equator are planting jatropha on millions of acres spurred on by big oil companies like British Petroleum that are investing in jatropha cultivation."

Poor farmers

[Descalzo]

Poor farmers living close to the equator are planting jatropha on millions of acres spurred on by big oil companies like British Petroleum that are investing in jatropha cultivation."

How dare they exploit the poor farmers like this?

Plus, this takes important jobs away from corn farmers in the USA.

Re:Just use hemp.

[QMalcolm]

Surely you jest. Everyone knows hemp is a gateway fuel. Sure, filling up your car with a hemp once every week or so isn't going to do any serious damage. But then it becomes every week, then twice, three times, and pretty soon you need a heroin fuel injection every half hour to even get to the gas station, just to buy more.

Nut pressing

[mpoulton]

"nutrient-rich seed cake left after oil is pressed from its nuts"

Anybody else cross their legs and cringe when reading this?

Contradiction?

[Anonymous Coward]

Jatropha is a poisonous weed, yet it cures constipation? In the same way hemlock would cure constipation?

it'll make you laugh and cry

[Anonymous Coward]

the article I mean

Jatropha requires no pesticides, little water other than rain and no fertilizer beyond the nutrient-rich seed cake left after oil is pressed from its nuts.

That part made me laugh, cry and cringe

That new car smell

[Quiet_Desperation]

The new weed burning cars will be available is many, many, many different colors.

So many colors...

Wait... what?

Re:Contradiction?

[ScrewMaster]

Last words of Socrates: "I drank what?"

What the article fails to mention...

[Jonboy X]

"Jatropha, an ugly, fast-growing and poisonous weed that has been used as a remedy for constipation..."

What the article fails to mention is the the "refinement" of this fuel source includes feeding it to the poor farmers, attaching a collection bag and waiting 12-24 hours to harvest the resultant natural gas.

Re:Problem in the math

[ThosLives]

Except it's not petrol, it's diesel. If you were running nice fuel-efficient modern diesels, you'd be using about 1/6th the fuel of the wheezy gutless petrols you have now.

Dude! Where can I get these diesel engines with 6 times the fuel economy of my gasoline car? (By the way, my car gets about 36 mpg - gasoline - on the highway...)

...Seriously...

Ob

[Edie O'Teditor]

an ugly, fast-growing and poisonous weed that has been used as a remedy for constipation

What a pity it wasn't posted by Roland Piquepaille.

Re:Contradiction?

[Jorgandar]

Yes it's a cure. You cant feel constipated when you're dead.

Re:This could be a problem...

[skeevy]

Sure! Ground cover, tree cover, house cover, car cover, fence cover, road cover, crop cover, ... The possibilities are endless!

Sentence that really hurt

[RealProgrammer]

This one hurts on so many levels:

Jatropha requires no pesticides, little water other than rain and no fertilizer beyond the nutrient-rich seed cake left after oil is pressed from its nuts.

1. No plants require pesticides.
2. Very few land-based plants require water other than rain, plants being unable to distinguish the source of their H2O.
3. As someone mentioned, most plants are able to live on soil and their own detritus.
4. I cannot contemplate for long the prospect of all those poor plants having their nuts crushed. Ooh, I hate when that happens!

Got to go

[Jon Luckey]

"Jatropha, an ugly, fast-growing and poisonous weed that has been used as a remedy for constipation...

I can hardly wait to be stuck in a traffic jam where the smog could instill yet another kind of 'need to go' to the situation.

Re:Hemp isn't that useful

[Bemopolis]

If someone genetically engineered a variety of tomato to contain THC, would you then ban all tomatoes?

No, but I might start using a lot more ketchup.

Re:hemp is a gateway fuel

[yerM)M]

I think he is trying to convince you that hemp is a getaway fuel, not a gateway fuel.

Re:Just use hemp.

[hawk]

>Wind blown dust will do some of that with no effort by the grower.

Fortunately, the FSF has lawyers to stop folks who freeload off others' dust while not returning their own dirt . . . :)

hawk

Re:Signs point to nuclear fusion.

[Rei]

Well, obviously. What did you think we were doing with all of the flowers that the Iraqis were throwing at us, if not feeding them to ponies?

Re:Just use hemp.

[Chris Burke]

Not only is it a weed, it's practically a menace, damned near impossible to kill, grows over acres in a season, requires only rain as it produces its own nitrogen (no fertilizers needed) and grows almost everywhere in the USA and most other countries.

Uh... Yeah, "uncontrollable growth" isn't exactly what I call a strong selling point for agriculture.

Re:Just use hemp.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hemp... has been demonstrated to produce excellent building material. Yes, but if it ever catches fire, the firemen on the scene just stand around breathing deeply and going "Dude! Look at the pretty flames!" and "Don't bogart that house! Let everybody have a toke!"

Re:Just use hemp.

[rthille]

My god, if we let these plants go wild, they'll strip the atmosphere of everything we need to live!

<grin>

Re:Just use hemp.

[G-funk]

From where in the word "hydrocarbon" did you get "nitrogen"?

You fail.