BIODIESEL PRODUCTION IN MEXICO FROM JATROPHA CURCAS

Abstract

Biodiesel production from vegetable oils has been severely questioned in severa! published works; they present economic, social and sustainability arguments to show that there are no neat advantages in the use of biofuels obtained from plants or cultivated varieties. In particular, it has been mentioned that biodiesel production competes with food production, that the overall energy efficiency of the process including the fuel burning is almost zero, that the large scale biodiesel production will require the massive destruction of rainforests and ecology at large. Without denying sorne of the arguments that are clearly true, in this study sorne arguments are presented to show that in Mexico it is technical, economic and ecologically possible to use the Jatropha curcas, an endemic vegetal variety in the country, to produce biofuels with sorne social and ecological advantages. This is accomplished by considering not only the technological aspects but also the social and ecological ones, taking for granted that a sound public policy is applied for this purpose. Sorne clear and immediate benefits are mentioned in connection with the ecology and the jobs arising around the biofuels industry.