Jatropha, sometimes referred to as the diesel tree, there's a fair amount of investment going into improving the yields.  You get the oil by way of seed processing.

Strangely, another species, copaifera_langsdorfii also shares the "diesel tree" moniker in many articles, but there are some big differences. The coolest being that you can get diesel fuel basically the same way you'd get sap from a maple tree: just tap it.

What sort of scares me about these trees is the wildfire danger.  Anyone who's ever had to put out a grease fire knows how bad they can be.  Imagine a plantation of grease fires the size of an apple orchard.  Considering that both species seem to favor tropical temperatures and aren't particular on soil quantity, I'm guessing there's a good chance we'll see a large farm of them on almost-desert soil go up in flames at some point.  It might only take one bad fire to blunt the interest in the crops.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 07:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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