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Vegetable oil from the Jatropha Curcas seed, locally known in the Dominican Republic as Pinon de Leche, is an indigenous plant and an excellent source of triglycerides for use in transesterification for the production of biodiesel. The quality of the oil and its inherent properties allow for the conversion of the crude vegetable oil into both ASTM 6751 and EN 14214 specification biodiesel. 
The primary use of renewable biodiesel thus far has been as a direct replacement for petroleum diesel in the transportation industry. A secondary use has been as a source of fuel for electrical generation where jatropha oil is used in place of high sulfur bunker fuel or the jatropha oil can be transesterified into biodiesel for use in diesel gen sets.
Recently, the commercial aviation industry has taken a keen interest into jatropha oil as a supplement to jet fuel. Several airlines have performed tests and found acceptable results of the use of jatropha oil.
“…Fuels based purely on oils from these plants performed well in test flights by airlines and jet-engine makers in December and January, says Ms. Holmgren. UOP, a unit of Honeywell International Inc., refined the fuel for the New Zealand Air, Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines flights. When burned, the oils produce less soot and particulate matter than regular jet fuel, Ms. Holmgren says. Also, cultivating and refining the oilseeds produces 50% less greenhouse-gas emissions than regular jet-fuel production, she says.”
March 9, 2009 Wall Street Journal Article by Mara Lamos Stein
The international market demand for jatropha based biofuels has been increasing due to concerns from the EU where the Renewable Energy Directive sets a binding goal of obtaining 10 percent of transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020. Of that 10 percent, nearly half will have to come from electricity or hydrogen from renewable sources, or from second-generation biofuels from waste crops or non-food crops. Since jatropha is a non-food crop and is grown in arid soils that are not conducive to food production, it offers an advantage by not competing for arable land with existing food production as is the case with soya, rapeseed, maize, peanuts and oil palm.
Increased demand in the US market is occurring due to the implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) by the US EPA; under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 the RFS program will increase the volume of renewable fuel required to be blended into gasoline from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
The Dominican Republic will have the opportunity to offset a sizeable quantity of imported petroleum with locally produced jatropha oil and biodiesel. The macro-economic benefits to the nation will have a considerable effect through the reduction of the amount of money that the treasury must pay to foreign petroleum producers though direct purchases and fuel subsidies.
The secondary effects of the economic activities of domestic production of a renewable energy crop such as jatropha are considerable. Since the cultivation and harvesting of the crop is largely a manual endeavor, the benefit of gainful employment for large numbers of workers results in a large rural economic development impact for the project.
Tertiary benefits of the project will extend to all areas of the economy in Montecristi and surrounding provinces. This economic activity is created by the spending of wages of thousands of employees of the project.
Phase one of the project will produce 100,000,000 gallons of jatropha oil in Montecristi of which 30,000,000 gallons of biodiesel will be produced and the remaining 70,000,000 gallons will be sold as crude jatropha oil.
Phase two will do the same in Pedernales and Phase threeI will be located in the Monte Plata area.
The project will be managed and operated by Ridge Partners Dominicana North S.A. and the project is majority owned by Ridge Partners LLC, of Burr Ridge, Illinois.
The lands that comprise the multiple phases of the project, (300,000 hectares) to be planted are owned by the Instituto Agrario Dominicano (IAD) and are leased from the IAD .
Phase one of the project will construct an oil extraction plant with an annual production capacity of 100,000,000 gallons of oil per year.
The project will construct a biodiesel plant with an annual capacity of 30,000,000 gallons per year.
The project will construct a tank farm with a capacity of 15,000,000 gallons.
The project will construct a nursery for the purposes of germinating jatropha curcas seed for planting.
The project will hire more than 5000 workers to staff the operations of the company in phase one alone. The jobs created will range from unskilled to highly skilled managerial and technical positions but the majority of jobs will be entry level and semi skilled.
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