Jatropha R&D project: “GREEN IRON”

Landscape ofThe region

A window toNew perspectives

Site of the lab

To set up a mycorrhizal germplasm reservoir of genetic diversity of mycorrhizal fungi of jatropha-curcas with high oil yielding for biodiesel production and the elimination of the toxicity of the meal]waste.

Executing organization :

BIOVALE ENERGIA – an emerging biodiesel company based in the Minas Gerais in partnership with various stakeholders in the oil production chain

Co-executing organizations:

Federal University of Viçosa – DMB/BIOAGRO, ranked as the best university of Minas Gerais State and 3rd in BrazilSECTES – Minas Gerais State Science and Technology SecretariatEPAMIG – EMPRESA DE PESQUISA DE AGROPECUÁRIA DE MINAS, national bench-mark in jatropha developmentItabira Munipality in cooperation with INDESI – Social and economic Development institution

R&D goals and stakeholders

Biofuel production has become substantially more efficient over the last 25 years as Brazil and the United States have scaled up their industries.

Such incremental gains are likely to continue for years to come.

New Technologies, New Gains

However, the greatest potential for biofuels lies in the development of new technologies that will significantly expand the range of biomass feedstock, increase conversion efficiencies, and lower production costs.

Documentation, preservation and characterization of J. curcasand mycorrhizal fungi germplasm

Development of micropropagated plants inoculated of ROC (Root Organ Culture) of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and their in vitro mass inoculum production

Selection of jatropha genotypes with high oil yielding, envisaging the biodiesel production

Toxicity elimination of the waste for animal feed

Utilization and reclamation of industry created wastelands

Expected results

The mycorrhizal technology offers biological means of assuring plant health in an economically profitable and ecologically friendly manner. The only known fungal system categorized as a biofertilizer, mycorrhizae provide plant roots with extended arms that help them tap soil nutrients that are otherwise beyond their reach. This means greater availability of other, enriching soil, increasing health, and decreasing dependence on chemical fertilizers.

It exists a wide diversity within the AM fungi which form association with the roots of almost 80% plant species and enhance mineral nutrient acquisition and water uptake, as well as increase tolerance towards different environmental stresses conditions.

To conserve and exploit their diversity, BioVale Project contemplates to build J. curcas and mycorrhizal fungi culture depository houses and maintain cultures from different agro-ecological zones, in different areas of Brazil.

The expected result is to trap isolate a variety of J. curcas and polysporal/monosporal cultures, setting up a J. curcas and mycorrhizal fungi germplasm collection of genetic diversity of agriculturally and industrially species for oil production .

Documentation, preservation and characterizationof J. curcas and mycorrhizal fungi germplasm

The ROC (root organ culture) system is the most attractive and advanced cultivation methodology for AM (arbuscular mycorrhizal ) fungi: it uses root-inducing transfer-DNA-transformed roots of a host plant to develop the symbiosis on a specific medium in vitro which provides pure, viable, contamination-free inoculum using reduced space.

BioVale R&D Project aims at gaining expertise in ROC for in vitro culture and utilize mass production of AM fungi under in vitro.

Development of ROC of different AM fungi and their mass inoculum production under in vitro

Although the facts and figures of potential role of mycorrhizalassociation in enhanced nutritional and water needs of plants inlaboratories, the major bottleneck for its widespread application to reach the end-users is its bulk production to cater the huge requirement.

A known fact that culturing mycorrhizal fungi in laboratory conditions like other microbes was not possible due to its strict biotrophic nature of proliferation in the presence of suitable host has been the major reservation of its future contribution in agriculture.

The mass inoculum technology envisages to exploit the genetically modified host roots using the Agrobacteriumumrhizogenes carrying Ri T-DNA plasmid. The technology offers the mass production of viable, healthy, genetically pure and high quality fungal propagules, without any pathogenic contamination under in vitro environment.

Mass inoculum technology

Jatropha has been identified as one the best plant alternative to offer clean fuel for achieving energy security. Jatropha seeds inoculated with in vitro-raised mycorrhiza exhibits early fruition and flowers from the 7th month onwards as against a year with conventional clonal plantations and two years from seed raised plantations.

The mycorrhized Jatropha also exhibited 20%–30% higher yields as compared to non-mycorrhizalplantations.

The mycorrhized Jatropha will be widely tested covering several agro-climatic regions in Brazil to prove their adaptation in diverse soils.

More and earlier productivity

Mycorrhized Jatropha has been working on the reclamation of environmentally vulnerable and uncultivable lands using mycorrhizal technology for more than a decade in India. The technology has proven its worth and potential in many sites, including fly ash overburdens, and land contaminated with distillery effluents, tannery effluent affected sites and chlor????? alkali sludge.

Mycorrhiza benefits both the plants and the environmentally vulnerable sites. Plant benefits include augmentation of the supply of phosphorus and trace elements and protection of plant roots from root diseases, high soil temperatures, and high salt concentrations. The hyphae of mycorrhiza can also bind soil particles, improve their aggregating capabilities, stabilize soil aggregates, and check leaching of important elements and heavy metals.

Environmental amelioration using mycorrhizal technology

The seed kernels are rich in crude protein, CP (31–34.5%) and lipid (55–58%). The neutral detergent fibre contents of extracted J. curcas meals were between 3.9% and 4.5 % of dry matter (DM). The gross energy of kernels ranged from 31.1 to 31.6 MJ/kg DM. The contents of starch and total soluble sugars were below 6 %. The levels of essential amino acids, except lysine, were higher than that of the FAO/WHO reference protein for a five year old child in all the meal samples on a dry matter basis.

The common use of this residue is as soil organic fertilizer after composting since it possesses a compound known as phorbol, that is toxic to animals. Thus, the R&D aims at studying not only thecomposting process of J. curcas residues but also to evaluate the detoxification potential of micro-organisms for production of mushroom and animal feed. So, the residue can be transformed in other products with high added value.

Incresing aggregated value of the residue J. curcasThe oil expell

Jatropha R&D project: “GREEN IRON”

gilbertociro@biovale.ind.br