Diesel Trees
The Brazilian tropical tree, copaifera langsdorfii, is said to produce about 40 liters of diesel a year in its maturity
Mike Jubow, an Australian wholesale nurseryman in the north Queensland city of Mackay, believes he knows the answer to the rising fuel costs and oil shortage for farmers. Jubow is growing imported tropical Brazilian trees which produce diesel oil that can be tapped and poured directly into vehicles and farm machinery.
The tree goes by the botanic name copaifera langsdorfii and Jubow says it will produce about 40 liters of diesel a year, with one hectare (about two and a half acres) of the plants sufficient to produce the fuel needs of a medium-sized farm, about 12,000 liters.
Jubow operates Nunyara Wholesale Forestry Nursery and has been in the industry for 14 years. He first heard about the trees at a forestry conference; while he didn’t believe it at first, after researching it on the internet he decided to get the seeds and give it a try. It took him three years to track the seeds down from a source in Brazil.
“Now we’ve got another oil crisis, our farmers’ cost of production from many avenues are skyrocketing, so their viability is being threatened – now is the prime time to get in and plant this tree,” he said. “It becomes astonishingly viable for a farmer to have a piece of his most productive land to get the tree up and running and then he can be independent from the fuel companies for the rest of his life,” he said.
The trees are known to produce fuel for 70 years. While the fuel cannot be stored for more than a few months it can be tapped. However there are other benefits to the trees; if the oil is left too long, it thickens into copaiba oil which can also be sold as a homeopathic medicine. The tree’s wood can also be milled as a light brown timber for cabinet makers, so that nothing is wasted.
Source: ABC NEWS ONLINE, The Sydney Morning Herald
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
