Biofuel co-products as livestock feed - Opportunities and challenges

Use of detoxified jatropha kernel meal and protein isolate in diets of farm animals 355ABPhoto 2Seeds of (A) Jatropha platyphylla and(B) Jatropha curcasSource: Makkar et al., 2011.after oil extraction is an excellent source of nutrients andcontains 60–65 percent crude protein (Makkar et al., 2011).The levels of EAAs (except lysine) are higher in defattedJ. platyphylla kernel meal than in SBM (Makkar et al., 2011).In addition, J. platyphylla kernel meal is free of phorbolesters, the main toxin present in most Jatropha species(Makkar et al., 2011). However, anti-nutrients, e.g. a trypsininhibitor, lectin and phytate, are present in the meal athigh levels (Makkar et al., 2011). Heat labile anti-nutrients,protease inhibitors and lectins are easy to inactivate bymoist heating, and phytase could be incorporated into thediet for degradation of phytate.Applications of jatrophaJatropha seeds have been extensively investigated asa source of oil. J. curcas seeds contain 25–35 percentcrude oil (Makkar and Becker, 2009a; King et al., 2009).The oil contains 21 percent saturated fatty acids and79 percent unsaturated fatty acids (Gübitz, Mittelbachand Trabi, 1999; Makkar and Becker, 2009a). Jatropha oilfatty acid composition includes 14–16 percent palmitate(16:0), 5–8 percent stearate (18:0), 34–46 percent oleicacid (18:1), 29–44 percent linoleic acid (18:2) and a traceof longer-chain saturated fatty acids (Foidl et al., 1996;Gübitz, Mittelbach and Trabi, 1999; King et al., 2009).Jatropha curcas oil has good feed stock qualities forbiodiesel production, the biodiesel meeting the EuropeanUnion (EN14214) and North American standards (ASTMD6751) (Makkar and Becker, 2009a; King et al., 2009).A number of countries, including India, Pakistan, China,Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mali,Thailand, Ghana, Bangladesh, Kenya, Zimbabwe andCape Verde, have initiated programmes for plantingJ. curcas as an energy plant. The cultivation of Jatrophaspecies as a source of oil for biodiesel production will inturn produce a number of by-products and co-products.The utilization of these products may increase the overallvalue of the jatropha biodiesel production chain. However,the presence of toxic components limits the utilization ofmany unprocessed jatropha-based products. Jatropha andits components have several uses, which are summarizedin Table 3.Comparative physical and chemicalcharacteristics of seeds and kernel meals fromtoxic and non-toxic Jatropha curcas genotypesand Jatropha platyphyllaThe seeds of J. curcas (toxic and non-toxic genotypes) areelliptical whereas seeds of J. platyphylla are almost circular(Photo 2) (Makkar et al., 2011). The seed, shell and kernelmasses are similar for both the toxic and non-toxic genotypes(Table 4). Composition of jatropha seed is presented inFigure 1. The seeds are rich in crude protein and lipids. Thechemical composition of seeds of these two Jatropha species– J. curcas and J. platyphylla – is similar (Table 4). Sugarand starch contents and the mineral composition (except20%FIGURE 1Composition of jatropha seeds (% in DM)5%45%8%22%Moisture Protein Carbohydrate Fibre Ash