Mission NewEnergy ships commercial-scale jatropha oil

Australia-listed Mission NewEnergy said that it has shipped commercial quantities of jatropha oil from its extensive network across India to its biodiesel refinery in Malaysia. Mission said it has aggregated approximately 1,500 metric tons of seed, which it believes to be the single largest ever compilation of jatropha seeds. Utilizing only basic oil expelling techniques, Mission has thus far extracted and shipped approximately 188 metric tons of crude jatropha oil, the company said. It is now introducing solvent extraction methods which have been shown to lead to a material increase in oil yield realization, from the current 16% to 20%-30%. (June 24, 2010)