November 29th – December 1st, 2006 Amora Tapae Hotel, Chiangmai Thailand

ASSESSMENT OF NEW POTENTIAL – CURCAS AND SATIVA FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY RESOURCES IN THAILAND

Ukrit Sahapatsombut and Apichart Suppapitnarm

National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC), National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), 114 Thailand Science Park, Paholyothin Road, Klongluang, Pathumthani, Thailand

ABSTRACT

The unstable rising of price in the world market has prompted research, public and commercial interests in exploring for new alternative energy resources. This together with the enforcement of Kyoto protocol, there have been a number of related studies on the energy and environmental efficiency of alternative fuels and the words “” and “sustainable energy” become more pronounced. Interestingly, analyses of many reliable studies confirm that there is a positive energy balance (net energy gain) in renewable energy production, implying that with one unit of fossil energy, two or more units of renewable fuel can be produced. The reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions is also confirmed, taking into consideration the emissions of agriculture, the transport chain and the production of , and the range of the CO2 reduction expands from 25 to 80%. The differences in the results, for both energy and environmental advantages, depend on the crops to be produced, the agricultural practice, the chain of procedures, and also on the quality of the data and the level of knowledge when the study was carried out. As this information is important and locally pertinent, this paper attempts to assess and compare the net energy balance and environmental impact of the two new potential crops for in Thailand. These are and . Both of them are suitable to grow with a variety of qualities, climates and rainfalls in Thailand. Recently, they are claimed to have rapid production and high oil yield per annum. Our study and analysis were conducted based on reliable secondary data and on the model with the situation as close to the Thai cultivating practice as possible including the agricultural, technological and production techniques currently available. When the required information is missing, this was obtained from the foreign studies in its place with some appropriate adjustments to reflect a Thai practical cultivation. The preliminary results reveal that both Jatropha and Camelina sativa have positive energy gains in their production. Jatropha, one of the interesting oil crops and most talked in Thailand at present, has the net energy ratio from the production to its ester equal to 3.74, including its by-products. This value is similar to that of and in Europe. In addition, Camelina sativa, a European agricultural , claimed to have low production costs, and recently introduced to Thailand as a potential biodiesel source, has the net energy ratio as high as 5.22 because of its massive by-products. In fact, Camelina sativa have positive energy balance even for the production of biodiesel ester only (net energy ratio = 1.47) whereas Jatropha has negative energy balance based on such criterion (net energy ratio = 0.68). Using Jatropha or Camelina biodiesel as a replacement to conventional diesel also has another environmental impact, and that is the reduction in emission of all but one green house gases, particularly CO2. While the NO2 emission is increased with biodiesel, this increase is only about 15% compared with the CO2 emission which is reduced by more than 70%.

Keywords : Energy balance, net energy gain, net energy ratio, biodiesel, Jatropha curcas, Camelina sativa.