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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on abject lands throughout 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 led to plantation failures nearly all over. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the incredibly elusive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they state, is dependent on splitting the yield problem and attending to the hazardous land-use problems linked with its initial failure.

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


At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree belonging to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its guarantee 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 focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha comeback is on.

"All those business that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play model of searching for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the process that was missed out on [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having found out from the mistakes of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant could yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A new boom could bring extra benefits, with jatropha likewise a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are doubtful, keeping in mind that jatropha has currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is important to find out from past errors. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.

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

Miracle shrub, significant bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its promise 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 numerous supposed virtues was an ability to thrive on degraded or "minimal" lands; therefore, it was declared it would never contend 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 appeared incredible; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, too many pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is dangerous."

Governments, global agencies, financiers and business bought into the hype, releasing efforts to plant, or promise 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 got ready for WWF.

It didn't take long for the mirage of the miraculous 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 indeed bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global evaluation kept in mind that "cultivation exceeded both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity along with an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can grow on minimal lands."

Projections estimated 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 began to fail as expected yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as declared, however yields stayed bad.

"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under relatively poorer conditions, created a huge problem," leading to "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise plagued by ecological, social and financial troubles, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas 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 payback" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss varied between 2 and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon debt may never be recovered." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, however using fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you take a look at most of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was positioned on minimal land, however the idea of minimal land is very evasive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the country over several years, and discovered that a lax definition of "marginal" suggested that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was typically illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The fact that ... currently no one is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't suggest that nobody is utilizing it [for other purposes] There are a great deal of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you might not necessarily see from satellite imagery."

Learning from jatropha

There are essential lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which ought to be followed when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], however regrettably not of research study, and action was taken based on supposed advantages 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 winding down, Muys and colleagues published a paper pointing out crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for in advance research study might be used to other potential biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for example, his team launched a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel guarantee.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on abject and marginal land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a significant and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary information might avoid wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other extremely promising trees or plants that might serve as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We wished to avoid [them going] in the exact same instructions of premature buzz and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines important requirements that must be fulfilled before moving ahead with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a ready market must be offered.

"Basically, the crop requires 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 weird."

How biofuel lands are acquired is also crucial, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were acquired for production, authorities need to guarantee that "guidelines are put in place to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to decrease some of the problems we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these difficulties, some scientists still think that under the best conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel solution - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some prospective, however it requires to be the ideal material, grown in the right location, and so on," Muys said.

Mohammad Alherbawi, a postdoctoral research fellow at Qatar's Hamad Bin Khalifa University, continues holding out hope for jatropha. He sees it as a manner in which Qatar may lower airline carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its usage as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is performing continuous field studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can actually boost the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them against any additional degeneration brought on by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar project's success still hinges on lots of aspects, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production technology that uses the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

Back in Ghana, jOil is currently handling 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 advancement have actually resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a years ago.

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

Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is looking at. The fruit and its byproducts 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 perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually as soon as again reopened with the energy transition drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A total jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be finished, however he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "We believe any such expansion will take place, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially accountable depends upon intricate factors, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state experts. Then there's the nagging problem of achieving high yields.

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

Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically negative in most of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he discusses.

Other scientists chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay doubtful of the environmental viability 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 change," states Daniel Itzamna Avila-Ortega, co-founder of the Mexican Center of Industrial Ecology and a Ph.D. student with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has performed research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites past land-use issues related to expansion of numerous crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not manage the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in regards to producing ecological issues."

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he stays concerned about prospective ecological expenses.

He recommends limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in really bad soils in need of repair. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in really sterilized wastelands," he describes. "That's the only method 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 advantages."

Jatropha's global future stays unpredictable. And its possible as a tool in the fight against climate change can just be unlocked, say many specialists, by avoiding the list of problems connected with its very first boom.

Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" which the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he states, "to collaborate with us to establish and broaden the supply chain of jatropha."

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

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

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