Biodiesel row in Kenya
We don't get a lot of green car news from Africa here on AutoblogGreen, but that doesn't mean there isn't any. In fact, it seems the news can be a bit confrontational, as group of environment-related organizations recently reacted "angrily" (according to African News Dimension) to a statement by the Kenyan Environment Minister Prof Kivutha Kibwana that the Green African Foundation has been allowed to produce biodiesel from the Jatropha Curcas plant (Jatropha is a genus of shrubs, and Jatropha Curcas is also known as psychic nut and the trees produce 1600 liters of Jatropha oil per hectare). The Kenyan environment-related organizations gathered at the end of July at the National Jatropha Conference to "design a road map towards biodiesel production," said Lorna Omuodo of Vanilla-Jatropha Development Foundation. Kibwana's announcement took them by surprise. "We are greatly alarmed at actions attributed to the Environment Minister, Kibwana, to the effect that he has authorized a local NGO to deal solely and undertake all matters pertaining to the enterprise of seedlings, seed processing, marketing and related issues on the Jatropha Curcas crop", an industry stakeholder told African News Dimension.[Source: African News Dimension]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 8:49AM (8/22/2006)
1600 liters/hectare for Jatropha oil? How about more than 110,000 liters of processed biodiesel per hectare for algae? See http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html
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