Lamp Oil Jatropha Oil Lantern

When you burn Jatropha oil in a lamp, a fine soot is emitted. Actually this soot is Activated Carbon, which adsorbs poisonous materials from air, cleans the air, and reduces Respiratory problems. In most parts of India, the lighting of lamp at night is a normal practice. Also there is no Electric Power Supply for 4 to 14 hours a day in rural India. In light of this and ever worsening scenario, Lantern is the only Hope of Light for Rural India. Though the lumen output of these lanterns is 10 to 20% of Electric Lamps, these can spread light in the life of people in rural India. Use of the Crude Jatropha Oil as fuel for these lanterns is more pressing than the use of it for manufacture of BioDiesel. Farmers can grow and process the seeds locally, and they can use it locally.

Many NGOs who work for upliftment of Tribals have found this model very effective. There are two schemes.
Scheme 1 : The NGOs set up Hand Operated Expellers like these, (which do not require electrical power) in there centers. Tribals come to their center with their bags containing many Oil Bearing Seeds like Jatropha, Neem (Non Edible oils for lamps), Pongamia, Mahua (Edible oils for Cooking) and crush the seeds themselves. The tribals carry the extracted oil home for burning these in oil lamps and for cooking. The Tribals leave the seed cake in the center. The NGOs then process the seed cake to BioFertilizer in their Centers, and sell it. Tribals collect sufficient seeds to last for a year, but crush these to get oil as and when required.
Scheme 2 : The same NGOs buy the oil, extracted as above and Sell it to Temples, Hotels, Households for burning them in simple lamps, as a social cause. The NGOs also tie-up with soap manufacturers for buying oil from them at a specified rate, which is passed on to Tribals.

If the people in the village plant Jatropha on 10 acres of fallow land, they can get at least 2 tons of Jatropha seeds (500 liters of Jatropha oil) after 1 year, 5 tons of Jatropha seeds (1,250 liters of Jatropha oil) after 2 years and 10 tons of Jatropha seeds (2,500 liters of Jatropha oil) every year after 3 years. This can satisfy the needs of liquid fuel for Lighting and Cooking. (Jatropha oil, expelled from seeds and filtered through filter press, can replace Kerosene or Lamp oil in these two applications and oil alone can be used in small low RPM Engines). A village can become self-sufficient in its energy needs.

Initially, most of the oil will be used as it is for cooking in stoves, for small engines and for lighting in lanterns since it will be easier for farmer to process the seeds locally, and he can get better value for his produce locally. It will also be used in big Diesel Engine based Electricity Generating sets, Pump Sets, Heavy Farm Machinery, where the viscosity of oil is not an issue. The requirement for this sector is 20 to 25 million tons per year.

Procedure for Plantation : Start production of Jatropha Saplings 3 months before onset of monsoon. On a barren land, plant these saplings on onset of monsoon, at 3 m x 3 m formation. During rainy season, it will receive rain water. During hot summer months, carry water in bullock cart tanks, and provide 3 to 5 liters of water to each plant once a week.

Plantation of Jatropha alone is not economically attractive, as there is little income from it for first 2 to 3 years. As Jatropha plant is initially small in height, Castor is intercropped with it in Fallow Land, to get income and oil for first 2 to 3 years. This oil can be used for Lighting homes. (see Castor). If land is good, soy can be grown, as soy oil is edible oil and soy meal is cattle feed.

After 3 years it will start yielding fruits and seeds

Extraction of Jatropha oil from Seeds

Oil is filtered before use

Oil is used as fuel for Lamps

Raw Jatropha oil can be used as it is in stoves for cooking purposes. The first is pressure stove, which emits oil into burner under air pressure, second is Wick stove, where oil rises to burner by capillary action while third is fed with fuel under gravity force of oil in side bottle. Pressure Stove                     Capillary Stove                     Gravity Stove Oil is used as fuel for Diesel Engine All these Lister type engines are produced in India. One of them is "Fieldmarshal" engine, manufactured by P.M. Diesels Ltd, Aji Industrial Estate, P.O.Box 1003, Rajkot, 360 003, India. Tel : 91-281-2387401-2-3-4 Fax : 91-281-2387406, Web Site : www.fieldmarshal.com.

Production of Bio Gas from Jatropha Seed Cake

Production of Bio Fertilizer from Treated Jatropha Cake