Constantly the biodiesel market is looking for some alternative to produce renewable resource. Biodiesel prepared from canola, sunflower and jatropha can replace or be combined with traditional diesel. During first half of 2000's jatropha biofuel made the headlines as a really popular and promising alternative. It is prepared from jatropha curcas, a plant types native to Central America that can be grown on wasteland.

Jatropha Curcas is a non edible plant that grows in the arid regions. The plant grows extremely rapidly and it can yield seeds for about 50 years. The oil got from its seeds can be utilized as a biofuel. This can be mixed with petroleum diesel. Previously it has been used twice with algae mix to fuel test flight of airlines.

Another positive approach of jatorpha seeds is that they have 37% oil material and they can be burned as a fuel without fine-tuning them. It is also utilized for medical function. Supporters of jatropha biodiesel say that the flames of are smoke totally free and they are successfully tested for easy diesel motor.

Jatropha biodiesel as Renewable Energy Investment has drawn in the interest of many companies, which have checked it for vehicle use. Jatropha biodiesel has been road checked by Mercedes and three of the automobiles have actually covered 18,600 miles by utilizing the jatropha plant biodiesel.

Since it is because of some disadvantages, the jatropha biodiesel have actually ruled out as a wonderful renewable resource. The most significant problem is that nobody understands that exactly what the performance rate of the plant is. Secondly they don't know how large scale cultivation may impact the soil quality and the environment as a whole. The jatropha plant requires 5 times more water per energy than corn and sugarcane. This raises another concern. On the other hand it is to be noted that jatropha can grow on tropical environments with annual rainfall of about 1000 to 1500 mm. A thing to be kept in mind is that jatropha needs appropriate irrigation in the very first year of its plantation which lasts for decades.

Recent survey says that it is true that jatropha can grow on abject land with little water and poor nutrition. But there is no proof for the yield to be high. This may be proportional to the quality of the soil. In such a case it might require high quality of land and might need the very same quagmire that is dealt with by most biofuel types.

Jatropha has one main disadvantage. The seeds and leaves of jatropha are toxic to human beings and animals. This made the Australian government to prohibit the plant in 2006. The government stated the plant as intrusive species, and too risky for western Australian agriculture and the environment here (DAFWQ 2006).

While jatropha has stimulating budding, there are number of research challenges remain. The importance of detoxing has to be studied since of the toxicity of the plant. Along side a methodical study of the oil yield have to be carried out, this is very important because of high yield of jatropha would probably needed before jatropha can be contributed significantly to the world. Lastly it is likewise very crucial to study about the jatropha species that can make it through in more temperature environment, as jatropha is very much limited in the tropical environments.