SPRERI experience on holistic approach to utilize all parts of Jatropha curcas fruit for energy

Freshly harvested Jatropha dried fruit contains about 35–40% shell and 60–65% seed (by weight). The fruits are 2.5cm long, ovoid, black and have 2–3 halves. It has nearly 400–425 fruits per kg and 1580–1600 seed per kg weight. Weight of 100 seeds is about 63g. Jatropha shells are available after de-shelling of the Jatropha fruit while Jatropha seed husks are available after decortications of Jatropha seed for oil extraction. Seed contains about 40–42% husk/hull and 58–60% kernels. The kernels have about 50% oil. If the oil is extracted by solvent method the oil recovery is more than 95% but in mechanical expeller the oil recovery is about 85% only. If 100kg of seed is expelled by expeller it will give about 28–30kg oil. While lot of emphasis is being given on use of bio-diesel, which is only about 17–18% of the dry fruit, not much attention is being given to utilize other components of fruit for energy purposes.