The Energy Balance of Jatropha Plantation in Sun BiofuelFarm in Central Mozambique

Abstract: Jatropha constitutes one of promising species suitable for providing oil for biodiesel production. So, looking for good practice and sustainable use of energy during Jatropha cultivation and lack of information about Jatropha in Mozambique, this study pretends to estimate the energy balance in Jatropha plantation in Sun biofuel farm, by calculating the energy indicators based on a life cycle approach in Sun Biofuel farm located in Manica province, Central Mozambique. Energy balance is a tool which can help to calculate all energy indicators in order to evaluate and analyse the energy efficiency, sustainability and environmental benefits. This study estimated the indicator of energy balance namely: energy input is the sum of all energy used during the process of Jatropha cultivation and oil production, energy output is the amount of energy produced, Net energy value can be calculated subtracting the energy output from the energy input, Energy productivity is the division of Jatropha produced by the respective input energy, specific energy is the division of energy input by Jatropha seed output and energy ratio is the energy output divided by energy input. Also data was collected on the farm of Sun Biofuel to estimate the sustainability of agricultural production of the company. The Jatropha production in Sun Biofuel farm (SBF) absorbed around 28 579 MJ/ha of energy during the production and 121 820 MJ/ha of energy gain as result of the all production. The total energy input was direct energy with 77% and Indirect energy with 23% used in Jatropha farm, and also the total energy input was divided into renewable with 26% and non-renewable with 74% of its contribution. The results revealed that the contribution of seed husks was (8%), woody products (38%), raw seed oil (30%), Shell (9%) and press cake (15%) of total energy output in Jatropha oil production farm. Net energy value (NEV), energy productivity, energy use efficiency and Specific energy was 93 241 MJ ha-1, 0.067 Kg MJ-1, 4.3 and 15.04 MJ Kg-1, respectively. According to these results the energy balance is positive and the energy use in Jatropha production is efficient.