Effect of Drying Temperature in the Physiological Quality of Jatropha curcas Seeds

Alessandra Olmo Dardengo,Márcia Terezinha Ramos De Oliveira,Bruno Borges Deminicis,Henrique Duarte Vieira,Pedro Amorim Berbert,Erico Da Silva Lima

doi:10.5539/jas.v10n9p443

Abstract

Stimulating the use of renewable energy instead of fossil fuels, especially biofuels, has become one of the alternatives to the issue of global warming. Of these species listed for the production of biodiesel is the Jatropha curcas crop. The aim of this study was to analyze the drying of the seeds of Jatropha, as well as to verify the effect of the different temperatures on the quality of the product, germination percentage and Emergence speed index (ESI). The experimental design was a completely randomized design, with four replications. Experimental drier was used to test the temperatures of 29, 35, 40, 45 and 50 °C and the data were compared by regression equation. The vigor and germination of the jatropha seeds were little affected as the drying temperatures were increased to 50 °C.

Highlights

The global warming caused by polluting emissions and the growing greenhouse effect has expand the global concern for the preservation of the environment and has strengthened the agenda for partial or total replacement of fossil fuels by biofuels.Production of biofuels through the exploitation of energy plant species is considered a sustainable viable alternative, given the diversity of existing oilseeds species and the reduction of the pollutant emissions they provide
Brazil has great potencial for the biofuels production in most of its territory due to its edaphoclimatics aspects, biodiversity, land and labor availability, such as comproved technical competence in the agricultural sciences field (Matos et al, 2014). An alternative to this demand consists in the development of productives, adapted and resistant varieties of promising oilseeds plants species, as the jatropha (Drumond et al, 2016)
The drying of the jatropha seeds was performed at 0, 29, 35, 40, 45 and 50 °C, with a mean flow of dry air of 0.7 ms-1 using a prototype dryer of thin layer, manufactured by the Industry and Trade of Machines Polidryer Ltda

Summary

Introduction

The global warming caused by polluting emissions and the growing greenhouse effect has expand the global concern for the preservation of the environment and has strengthened the agenda for partial or total replacement of fossil fuels by biofuels.Production of biofuels through the exploitation of energy plant species is considered a sustainable viable alternative, given the diversity of existing oilseeds species and the reduction of the pollutant emissions they provide. Brazil has great potencial for the biofuels production in most of its territory due to its edaphoclimatics aspects, biodiversity, land and labor availability, such as comproved technical competence in the agricultural sciences field (Matos et al, 2014). An alternative to this demand consists in the development of productives, adapted and resistant varieties of promising oilseeds plants species, as the jatropha (Drumond et al, 2016). This way, Japhora curcas L. has been studied by presenting potencial as a raw material for the production of biodiesel (Virgens, Castro, Loureiro, & Fernandez, 2017)

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