近年來，由於台灣農村嚴重缺乏人力資源和工資日昂及農產品之低利潤等因素，許多荒廢地荒棄良久未用十分可惜，基於此因素，許多從事農業方面之業者、森林學者、保育專家及生態學者等均大聲疾呼“應有效再利用荒廢農地”。在開發中國家，生質能佔有15%的能源供應量，未來生質能在世界能源供應上日益重要，若能在荒廢農地上大量栽植生長快速且於貧瘠荒地也能生長良好之蓖麻，將對環境及荒廢農地之衝擊性有多大？又蓖麻植物是否可成為未來重要之能源作物？均值得進一步探討。本研究針對蓖麻之生長、收獲及生質油之製造技術和參考文獻等加以分析及探討。並就再生能源之展望觀點，探究種植蓖麻能源作物對環境之衝擊性及經濟面和社會面的影響加以探究。另就參考文獻中台灣蓖麻之生態需要、收獲及加工生產等方面引用文獻探討之。本研究之生質能結果可望為農業專家、學者、農民、從事生質能源業者和農業決策者等帶來取代稻米、玉米、小麥及馬鈴薯等可食性作物，以快速生長和對地力要求不高之非糧食能源作物「蓖麻」為可製造生質柴油和潤滑油等之重要參考依據。有鑑於生質能源作物蓖麻為非糧食作物，具有多用途且易栽培及種子含油量高並可提煉出高品質生質柴油和潤滑油等之優點，因此可望部份解決台灣依靠99%進口石油之窘境;若能在台中縣荒廢農地試行栽植蓖麻能源作物，將可達到勿浪費荒廢農地和提供部份生質能源及節能減碳等多重利益。

Due to the increasing wages, low agricultural profits, and lack of farmers in Taiwan a lot of productive farm fields have been barren for a long time. To effectively utilize agricultural fallow is appealed by agriculturists, foresters, conservationalists and ecologists recently. Since biomass energy currently accounts for about 15% of the global primary energy consumption and will undoubtedly play an increasing role in the world's energy consumption, we propose to discuss the feasibility of planting an energy crop, castor (Rucina communis), at agricultural fallow of Taichung County, Taiwan.Although castor– a wild plant species- can easily grow in dried infertile field, can it makes up this large percentage of our energy resources? Can we grow it in the agricultural fallow to boost the levels of oil/biodiesel production instead of imported oil? What impact does their cultivation have on the environment and plantation development? This paper starts with aspects of castor cultivation,harvesting, as well as conversion technologies for biofuels as references cited. This is followed by a look at the environmental impact and economic and social dimensions, including prospects for renewable energy. We then go on to discuss the main potential energy crop- castor. For this species, we give a brief description, outlines the ecological requirements, methods of cultivation, processing and
utilization, then finished with selected references. All those whose work involves biomass energy production, whether as agriculturalist, student, farmer, producer, planner or policy maker will find this paper an invaluable reference work on the plantation of fast-growing castor – an inedible crop instead of other edible energy resources i.e., rice, corn, wheat , and potato in agricultural fallow. In general, castor is an ideal plant species for the manufacturing of vegetable oil to replace petroleum.
Presumably, castor will be planting in agricultural fallow of Taichung county, Taiwan as a promising species in oil industry based on renewable biomass energy resources.