African jatropha oil to fuel Lufthansa jets

Doubts have been cast over the jatropha curcas shrub’s potential to produce biodiesel from poor soil. But Germany’s JatroSolutions has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with national airline Lufthansa to grow jatropha in West Africa for kerosene production. The company’s founder and chief executive, Hohenheim University Professor Klaus Becker, told African Energy the MoU was for a project to plant up to 120,000ha in Cameroon or Ghana, in a E250m ($334m) investment. JatroSolutions’ biggest shareholder is German energy company Energie Baden-Württemberg.