Physic nut - jatropha curcas - is a shrub with toxic seeds and these contain a high percentage of oil used for candles, soap and biodiesel production.

Caretaker Science and Technology Minister Pravich Ratanapian said the Physic Nut School would be a knowledge-based centre and would utilise technology to support communities who are interested in growing the shrub to produce biodiesel, with a view to ultimately help solve the problem of rising oil prices.

The school is expected to start within the next few months. It will provide step-by-step learning so students eventually participate in the production process.

He said the ministry would provide full support to encourage agricultural communities to plant jatropha curcas.

The ministry is also negotiating with tambon administrative organisations to set up a pilot project to support communities and encourage them to produce biodiesel by themselves.

Sombat Chinawong, dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Kasetsart's Kamphaengsaen Campus in Nakhon Pathom, said the school would be a prototype to teach people about physic nut and how to produce biodiesel as an alternative energy source.

Pravich said the Science Ministry had also had success in encouraging the private sector, educational institutions and government agencies to develop the prototype of a physic-nut biodiesel production machine. The oil extraction equipment can produce 200 litres of biodiesel per day from 800 kilograms of physic nut.

He said the project aimed to extend the biodiesel machine's production capacity to meet higher demand in the future.

Biodiesel is a kind of fuel that may replace the use of traditional fossil oil, and its use has been encouraged by recent dramatic increases in crude oil prices.

The ministry predicts Thailand will need to use 90 million litres of biodiesel per day by 2008 to reduce import substitution.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation