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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was wildly promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on abject lands across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
A jatropha rush occurred, 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 after-effects of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, is dependent on splitting the yield issue and resolving the harmful land-use problems intertwined with its original failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have been accomplished and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this resurgence fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds important lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple shrub-like tree belonging to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its pledge as a sustainable source of biofuel that could be grown on degraded, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields failed.
Now, after years of research and development, the sole staying large plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on.
"All those business that failed, adopted a plug-and-play model of hunting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom might bring additional benefits, with jatropha also a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some scientists are hesitant, noting that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is necessary to find out from past mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha curcas plantations were obstructed not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.
Experts likewise suggest that jatropha's tale provides lessons for scientists and business owners exploring appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal originated from its pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from grasses, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several purported virtues was an ability to prosper on abject or "marginal" lands; therefore, it was declared it would never complete with food crops, so the theory went.
Back then, jatropha ticked all the boxes, says Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that appeared amazing; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too lots of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is poisonous."
Governments, international firms, investors and business purchased into the hype, releasing efforts to plant, or guarantee to plant, millions of 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 research study prepared for WWF.
It didn't take wish for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Buddies of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known at the time as Swaziland) warned that jatropha's high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review kept in mind that "cultivation outpaced both scientific understanding of the crop's potential along with an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can prosper 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, just 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to stop working as anticipated yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as declared, but yields remained bad.
"In my opinion, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, produced a really big problem," leading to "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also afflicted by ecological, social and financial problems, state experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.
Studies discovered that land-use modification for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between two and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon debt might never be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, however the use of fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you take a look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was located on marginal land, however the idea of minimal land is extremely evasive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the country over several years, and discovered that a lax meaning of "marginal" meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was typically illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The truth that ... currently no one is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't mean that no one is utilizing it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based incomes 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, say experts, which must be observed when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in investment], however regrettably not of research, and action was taken based upon alleged benefits of jatropha," says Bart Muys, a professor in the Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2014, as the jatropha buzz was unwinding, Muys and colleagues released a paper pointing out key lessons.
Fundamentally, he describes, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This essential requirement for in advance research study could be applied to other possible biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for example, his group released a paper evaluating the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel promise.
Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on abject and marginal land. But Muys's research revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a significant and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary information could avoid wasteful financial speculation and negligent land conversion for brand-new biofuels.
"There are other really appealing trees or plants that might work as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We desired to avoid [them going] in the very same instructions of early hype and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights vital requirements that should be met before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a prepared market must be offered.
"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we know how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."
How biofuel lands are acquired is also essential, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities must guarantee that "standards are put in place to inspect how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to minimize a few of the problems we observed."
A jatropha resurgence?
Despite all these challenges, some scientists still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some potential, however it needs to be the right product, grown in the ideal location, and so on," Muys said.
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 manner in which Qatar may reduce airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its usage as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.
Alherbawi's group is performing continuous field studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can truly boost the soil and farming lands, and safeguard them against any further deterioration caused by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar job's success still hinges on numerous elements, not least the ability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production innovation that uses the totality 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) dealing with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian describes that years of research study and development have led to varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade earlier.
"We had the ability to quicken the yield cycle, improve the yield range and enhance the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first project is to expand our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."
Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is taking a look at. The fruit and its by-products could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal substitute (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 ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has once again resumed with the energy transition drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A total jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be finished, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 elements - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "Our company believe any such growth will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any nation."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially responsible depends upon intricate aspects, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say professionals. Then there's the bothersome problem of attaining high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has stirred argument over possible repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep problem, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many previous plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which ended up being bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often unfavorable in most of the jatropha sites, due to the fact that the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he explains.
Other researchers chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists remain skeptical of the ecological practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps becomes so successful, that we will have a great deal of associated land-use modification," says 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 performed research on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega mentions past land-use issues related to expansion of different crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not cope with the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of creating ecological issues."
Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages may be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains concerned about possible environmental expenses.
He recommends restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in truly poor soils in need of remediation. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in very sterile wastelands," he describes. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are greater than the possible advantages."
Jatropha's global future stays uncertain. And its prospective as a tool in the fight against climate modification can just be opened, state many professionals, by preventing the litany of troubles connected with its first boom.
Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "to collaborate 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).
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