TerViva and Mason & Morse Farmland partner for pongamia tree projects.

BioBased Digest
Tom Saidak
July 19, 2012

In California and Florida, TerViva and Mason & Morse Farmland are partnering to develop pongamia tree projects. The pongamia tree is native to Australia and India, and yields a nut crop harvestable with conventional shakers. The seed produced by the tree has a 40% oil content that can be easily refined into a very high-grade biodiesel, bio-jet fuel, or even other high-demand bio-chemicals like oleic acid. The remaining seedcake can then be used as a high-protein animal feed or a high-nitrogen fertilizer. TerViva is eyeing Florida’s thousands of acres of abandoned Florida citrus land as potential areas for their turnkey program in which they supply the trees and secure the off-take at harvest, with two citrus growers in Florida who are available to act as to project operators for planting, maintenance, and harvesting. Mason & Morse Farmland Group will source the Florida land for investors interested in a diversification like this.

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ANALYSIS-Promising biodiesel crop needs time to prove itself

Reuters Africa
Thu Oct 27, 2011 2:23pm GMT

* Attractive due to higher oil yield than palm, jatropha
* Doubts linger as not proven yet on commercial scale
* Some say may be best suited to small farmers

By Nina Chestney

LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Several new companies are betting on the little-known pongamia pinnata tree as a biodiesel feedstock that does not hurt food production, but a decade or more of research and development is still needed to determine its value as a commercial crop.

Pongamia pinnata, also known as millettia pinnata, is native to Australia, India and parts of southeast Asia. Its oil has so far been used in medicines, lubricants and oil lamps.

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