Jatropha oil is non-edible, even toxic (it causes vomiting and diarrhea), Haney says genetically modified strains will never cause scarcities of food. And because Jatropha can be grown in poor, sandy soil on as little as 10 inches of rain per year, Haney says Jatropha does not embody the food-or-fuel debate that has brought corn-based ethanol plants under strident criticism.
“One of the great things about this crop is that it grows on marginal land, some would even say wasteland,” Haney says. To grow Jatropha profitably, though, he says the plants, which can grow as high as 16 feet, must be grown on farms or plantations so the plants can be maintained and pruned to maximize the yield of seeds. “We are very focused on Latin America because the crop already grows there,” Haney says. “We also see opportunities in Africa and Asia with genetically modified organisms.”
Haney joined SG Biofuels several years ago, after serving as president of Green Millennium, a sustainable forestry company he grew from a startup to more than 100 employees. Haney says funding for SG Biofuels was provided by a number of “high net-worth individuals,” and totals less than $10 million. Angel investor Georges Daou, who founded IT company Daou Systems in San Diego, is the company’s chairman and chief business development officer. The board of advisors includes former 3Com CEO Edgar Masri, former Gibbs Oil CEO Herb Sostek, and George Peat, a former general manager for Kellogg, Brown & Root in Saudi Arabia.
