Biotech Updates

Jathropa Project in Costa Rica to Scale Up

May 29, 2013
News article: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alternative-fuels-americas-successfully-concludes-biodiesel-research-trials-moves-towards-production-208471511.html

The Florida-based Alternative Fuels Americas, Inc. (AFAI) has successfully completed research trials for Jathropa curcas in Costa Rica and is planning to move towards commercial scale production of this species as biodiesel feedstock.

AFAI has concluded its trials in a 10-hectare pilot plantation with 40,000 mature Jatropha trees in Tempate, Costa Rica. The purpose of the trials is to establish best-practice protocols for maximum crop yield and production profitability. Now with a strong degree of certainty that Jatropha can be farmed to profitably produce biodiesel, AFAI is preparing to establish commercial scale production in Central America as a staged entry into a biodiesel market forecasted to exceed $500 billion by 2019.