Hydrocarbons from Euphorbia lathyris

Euphorbia lathyris, a plant which has been proposed as an "energy farm" candidate yields a total of 35% of its dry weight as simple organic extractables. Chemical analyses of the extracts show that 5% of the dry weight is a mixture of reduced terpenoids, in the form of triterpenoids, and 20% of the dry weight is simple sugars in the form of hexoses. The terpenoids can be converted to a gasoline-like substance and the sugars can be fermented to alcohol. Based on a biomass yield of ten dry tons acre1 year1, the total energy that can be obtained from this plant in the form of liquid fuels is 45 X 106 BTU acreyear1.