Energy Analysis of Irrigated Jetropha Cultivation for Producing Biodiesel

Akshay Gupta; K. V. Bharadwaj; Suvha Lama; Jyotirmay Mathur

doi:10.4236/lce.2010.12007

Home > Journals > Business & Economics | Earth & Environmental Sciences > LCE

Low Carbon Economy > Vol.1 No.2, December 2010

Energy Analysis of Irrigated Jetropha Cultivation for Producing Biodiesel ()

Akshay Gupta, K. V. Bharadwaj, Suvha Lama, Jyotirmay Mathur

DOI: 10.4236/lce.2010.12007 PDF HTML 4,058 Downloads 8,929 Views Citations

Abstract

Increase in yield of Jetropha plantation due to irrigation has been investigated considering the energy required to pump out underground water for Jetropha plantation in India. Depth of the water table is the variable. Comparison has been made with unirrigated Jetropha cultivation and increase in yield of bio-diesel has been compared with the primary energy required for operating the water pumps. Analysis has been carried out for areas having low, medium and high rainfalls and with three depths of water tables 20 m, 40 m and 60 m. It has been found that in areas having low rainfall and depth of water table 40 m, the energy balance is negative for first 4 years. Whereas in areas having low rainfall but water table 20 m, energy balance becomes positive in the third year, whereas for 60m depth, it doesn’t become positive in the fifth year even.

Keywords

Energy Analysis, Energy Balance, Pump Power, Primary Energy Equivalent, Energy Yield Stabilization Matrix

Share and Cite:

A. Gupta, K. Bharadwaj, S. Lama and J. Mathur, "Energy Analysis of Irrigated Jetropha Cultivation for Producing Biodiesel," Low Carbon Economy, Vol. 1 No. 2, 2010, pp. 54-60. doi: 10.4236/lce.2010.12007.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	W. M. Achten, L. Verchot, Y. J. Franken, E. Mathijs, V. P. Singh, R. Aerts, et al., “Jatropha Bio-Diesel Production and Use,” Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol. 22, 2008.
[2]	Ground Water Atlas of Rajasthan. Retrieved 20 November 2009. http://www.indianwaterportal.org
[3]	E.U. Hydraulic Institute, “Pump Life Cycle Costs: A Guide to LCA Analysis for Pump-ing Systems,” Executive Summary, Hydraulic Institute, Euro-pump, Us Department of Energy’s Office of Industrial Tech-nologies (OIT), New Jersey, January 2001.
[4]	Crop Cultiva-tion, Retrieved 20 November 2009 from http://www.jatrophaworld.org
[5]	A. Ludecke, “Cut Costs by Water Well Monitoring,” World Pumps, April 2004, pp. 30-34.
[6]	Energy Units, Retrieved 10 November 2009, from American Physical Society Sites: http://www.aps.org/policy/reports/popa-reports/energy/units.cfm
[7]	Mukherjee, “Researching Jatropha Curcas,” Horticulture Department, Agricultural Research Institute of India, Jaipur, 2008.