Jatropha Biotech Solutions LLC is a new consulting business created by managing partners Bob Burkey and Bob Harris. Mr. Burkey has been the Director of the Hawaii Biotech Tissue Culture Center for the past four-and-a-half years and Mr. Harris, a Johns Hopkins-trained biophysicist with an M.A. from the University of Oregon in Botany, has been manager of protocol development at the lab for the past six months.
With bio-technical experience in tissue culture of Jatropha curcas, the team offers analysis and hands-on guidance to biofuel concerns seeking vigorous growth and optimal yields by Jatropha curcas in plantation settings. We provide expertise in setting up site-specific tissue-culture laboratories and in selecting and/or developing superior plant strains designed to thrive in local conditions.
Drawing on its extensive experience in tissue culture and tropical agriculture, the group’s objective is to formulate and execute commercial production plans which will maximize profits for large-scale jatropha projects.
Hawaii Biotech Tissue Culture Center (HBTCC)
Funded by federal and state grants, the Hawaii Biotech Tissue Culture Center was created in 2004 with a mandate to provide tissue-culture services and new crops for the Hawaii agricultural community. It is a project of the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council, a non-profit workforce development enterprise.
In its 8500 square foot facility, HBTCC’s technical teams have mass produced commercial clones of orchids, Camellia sinense (green tea), viryea (tropical rhododendrums) and vanilla. In the past two years, HBTCC has shifted its focus to Jatropha curcas, identifying superior high-yield cultivars and conducting ground-breaking research into protocols for mass production through tissue culture.
Speaker Profile
Robert Burkey has owned and operated commercial orchid nurseries in California and Hawaii for the past 25 years. An accomplished orchid hybridizer, he has received numerous awards for his distinctive cultivars.
For 12 years he operated a tissue culture laboratory at his Hawaii nursery. He assumed the post of Director of the Hawaii Biotech Tissue Culture Center four-and-a-half years ago. There he has established a 25-acre experimental jatropha research farm in Hilo and managed development of a tissue culture protocol for mass production of superior jatropha cultivars at the HBTCC lab.
Bob is also a managing partner in Jatropha Biotech Solutions LLC, a consulting firm with expertise in mass-meristem production systems for superior jatropha for the biofuels industry.
Bob has B.A. and M.A. degrees in Philosophy from Kansas State University and the University of Toledo.
Overview of Presentation
An issue with jatropha as a compelling biofuel source has been yield per acre. Selected superior plants can produce up to double the yield of average plants, but a reliable method for mass multiplying tissue cultured superior cultivars has proved elusive. Mr. Burkey will present findings relevant to this goal based upon research conducted at the Hawaii Biotech Tissue Culture Center in Hilo, Hawaii. The HBTCC’s Jatropha Program has focused on two objectives: (1) the selection and development of superior cultivars, and (2) development of tissue culture protocols to mass-multiply these cultures in vitro. The presentation will track the history of the HBTCC’s efforts, providing useful information about facilities and timelines needed to accomplish clonal mass production, and will share results achieved to date by the HBTCC program.
JatrophaWorld 2009 Miami Speaker
Day 1 – Wednesday, June 10
15:15 CLONING JATROPHA: MASS MULTIPLYING SUPERIOR CULTIVARS
JATROPHAWORLD 2009 is a showcase of all the latest trends and shifts occurring in the Jatropha value chain, bringing together on a single platform, the best expertise to discuss and analyze the present and future dynamics of Jatropha from a technological and socio-economic angle. To find more about JatrophaWorld in Maimi from June 10 to 11, 2009, please visit http://www.futureenergyevents.com/jatropha/.