World of Renewables – News – Haiti’s Hopes for Biofuels Rest on Jatropha Plant
World of Renewables – News – Haiti’s Hopes for Biofuels Rest on Jatropha Plant
Haiti is looking to a small shrub called jatropha to fuel an alternative energy boom that may help cut the impoverished country’s reliance on oil and charcoal.
VOA’s Brian Wagner reports the efforts already are drawing the support of Brazil and the United States in developing clean and renewable fuel supplies.
The rising cost of foreign oil has governments and researchers around the world searching for cheaper and more sustainable forms of energy. In Haiti, the hope is centered on a native plant called jatropha curcas, which bears oily seeds that can be crushed and processed to produce diesel fuel for generators or vehicles.
Organisation such as Zanfan Tradisyon Ayisyen (ZANTRAY) is seeking ways to get involved in raising the jatropha trees in haiti on a big scale. As as today there are no large plantations of jatropha in haiti. It is indeed found, but no big plantations…
