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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on abject lands across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

A jatropha rush ensued, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields caused plantation failures nearly everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the incredibly elusive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, is dependent on cracking the yield issue and resolving the hazardous land-use issues linked with its original failure.

The sole staying large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been accomplished and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.


At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple shrub-like tree belonging to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its promise as a sustainable source of biofuel that might be grown on deteriorated, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields fell flat.

Now, after years of research study and advancement, the sole staying large plantation concentrated on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha comeback is on.

"All those companies that failed, adopted a plug-and-play model of hunting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the process that was missed out on [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he states the oily plant might yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom could bring additional advantages, with jatropha likewise a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are skeptical, noting that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is vital to gain from previous mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by bad yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts likewise suggest that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and business owners checking out appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal originated from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from turfs, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous purported virtues was an ability to prosper on abject or "minimal" lands; therefore, it was claimed it would never ever compete with food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, jatropha ticked all the boxes, states Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that seemed miraculous; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, too numerous pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is poisonous."

Governments, global companies, investors and companies purchased into the buzz, introducing efforts to plant, or guarantee to plant, countless hectares of jatropha. By 2008, plantations covered some 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) in Latin America, Africa and Asia, according to a market study got ready for WWF.

It didn't take wish for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha's high needs for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international evaluation noted that "cultivation outpaced both scientific understanding of the crop's potential in addition to an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can flourish on limited lands."

Projections approximated 4.7 million hectares (11.7 million acres) would be planted by 2010, and 12.8 million hectares (31.6 million acres) by 2015. However, only 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations began to fail as anticipated yields refused to materialize. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as claimed, however yields remained poor.

"In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under fairly poorer conditions, created a huge problem," resulting in "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also afflicted by environmental, social and financial troubles, say experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.

Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss varied in between two and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon benefits, but the use of fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was situated on marginal land, however the concept of limited land is extremely elusive," discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the nation over numerous years, and discovered that a lax meaning of "marginal" suggested that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was often illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... presently nobody is using [land] for farming does not suggest that no one is using it [for other functions] There are a lot of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite images."

Learning from jatropha

There are key lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which need to be observed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], however sadly not of research, and action was taken based on supposed benefits of jatropha," states Bart Muys, a professor in the Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2014, as the jatropha hype was winding down, Muys and associates published a paper pointing out crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This crucial requirement for upfront research study might be applied to other potential biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for example, his a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel guarantee.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and marginal land. But Muys's research revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a considerable and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary information could avoid inefficient financial speculation and reckless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other really promising trees or plants that could function as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We wanted to prevent [them going] in the very same instructions of early hype and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that should be met before moving ahead with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields must be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and an all set market needs to be available.

"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [clinical understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd."

How biofuel lands are obtained is also crucial, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were acquired for production, authorities must ensure that "guidelines are put in location to inspect how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to minimize some of the problems we observed."

A jatropha resurgence?

Despite all these difficulties, some researchers still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think jatropha has some prospective, but it needs to be the right product, grown in the right location, and so on," Muys stated.

Mohammad Alherbawi, a postdoctoral research study fellow at Qatar's Hamad Bin Khalifa University, continues holding out hope for jatropha. He sees it as a method that Qatar may decrease airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is conducting continuous field studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can really enhance the soil and farming lands, and safeguard them against any additional wear and tear brought on by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar project's success still depends upon many aspects, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another important step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the whole of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.

Back in Ghana, jOil is presently managing more than 1,300 hectares (1,830 acres) of jatropha, and growing a pilot plot on 300 hectares (740 acres) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian describes that years of research and development have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade ago.

"We were able to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first job is to broaden our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."

Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is looking at. The fruit and its byproducts might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (essential in Africa where much wood is still burned for cooking), and even bioplastics.

But it is the transportation sector that still beckons as the perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually as soon as again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A complete jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be completed, however he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he states. "We think any such expansion will take place, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [enabling] no competition with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially accountable depends upon intricate factors, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state professionals. Then there's the nagging issue of attaining high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government announced its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has actually stirred argument over possible repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep difficulty, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many past plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which became bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically unfavorable in the majority of the jatropha websites, due to the fact that the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he describes.

Other researchers chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists remain uncertain of the environmental practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps ends up being so successful, that we will have a lot of associated land-use change," states Daniel Itzamna Avila-Ortega, co-founder of the Mexican Center of Industrial Ecology and a Ph.D. trainee with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has conducted research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega mentions past land-use issues associated with growth of numerous crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not manage the personal sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of developing environmental issues."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays concerned about possible ecological costs.

He suggests limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it just in really bad soils in need of remediation. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in extremely sterilized wastelands," he discusses. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are greater than the prospective benefits."

Jatropha's worldwide future stays unpredictable. And its possible as a tool in the fight versus climate change can only be opened, state many experts, by preventing the list of troubles connected with its very first boom.

Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "to team up with us to develop and broaden the supply chain of jatropha."

Banner image: Jatropha curcas trees in Hawai'i. Image by Forest and Kim Starr through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

A liquid biofuels primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world effects

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