Ecobreves – CHILE: Studying Flora for Biofuels

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SANTIAGO, Oct 5 2009 (IPS) - The Chilean government's National Resources Information Center will analyze 30 plant species to determine which are most suitable for developing biofuels and their potential for cultivation in this country. The study “Zoning for Productive Suitability of Bioenergy Species” will last for seven months and will examine food crops as well as shrubs and trees.

“The government is on the right track: testing more than one (energy) alternative and trying to expand the farm frontier. Chile currently has a great deal of land that is not being used,” Manuel Paneque, University of Chile researcher and coordinator of the physic nut (Jatropha curcas) study, told Tierramérica.

Other species being considered are sorghum, wheat, safflower, flax, sunflower, hawthorn, eucalyptus, willow, poplar and paulownia.