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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was wildly promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on abject lands throughout 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 led to plantation failures nearly everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they state, is reliant on cracking the yield problem and resolving the hazardous land-use concerns intertwined with its original failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have been accomplished and a new boom is at hand. But even if this resurgence falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds essential lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
At the beginning 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 pledge as a sustainable source of biofuel that might 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 big plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on.
"All those companies that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This belongs of the process that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant could yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transport carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some researchers are skeptical, noting that jatropha has currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is necessary to gain from previous errors. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by bad yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.
Experts likewise suggest that jatropha's tale offers lessons for researchers and business owners exploring appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from yards, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several purported virtues was a capability to grow on degraded or "minimal" lands; hence, it was declared it would never complete with food crops, so the theory went.
At that time, 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, a lot of pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food due to the fact that it is harmful."
Governments, worldwide agencies, investors and business bought into the buzz, introducing initiatives 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 study prepared for WWF.
It didn't take wish for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high demands for land would certainly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international evaluation noted that "growing exceeded both clinical understanding of the crop's potential as well as an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can flourish on marginal 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 materialize. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and endure drought conditions, as claimed, but yields stayed bad.
"In my opinion, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under fairly poorer conditions, produced a huge problem," resulting in "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also pestered by environmental, social and economic troubles, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural areas were reported.
Studies discovered that land-use modification for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico found the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon debt might never be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, however using fertilizers resulted in boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was located on limited land, however the idea of limited land is very evasive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the country over numerous years, and discovered that a lax definition of "minimal" indicated that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The truth that ... currently nobody is using [land] for farming doesn't imply that no one is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you might not always see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are key lessons to be found out from the experience with jatropha, say experts, which should be hearkened when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], but regrettably not of research, and action was taken based upon 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 released a paper citing crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This vital requirement for in advance research could be used to other prospective biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for instance, 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 degraded 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 substantial and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding gaps." Use of such cautionary data might prevent inefficient monetary speculation and reckless land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that could act as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys says. "We wanted to prevent [them going] in the very same direction of early hype and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights vital requirements that must be fulfilled before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and an all set market should 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 almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd."
How biofuel lands are obtained is also key, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were acquired for production, authorities should ensure that "standards are put in location to examine how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to reduce some of the problems we observed."
A jatropha resurgence?
Despite all these obstacles, some scientists still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel service - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some prospective, but it needs to be the right material, grown in the right location, and so on," Muys stated.
Mohammad Alherbawi, a postdoctoral research fellow at Qatar's Hamad Bin Khalifa University, continues holding out hope for jatropha. He sees it as a method that Qatar may reduce airline carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.
Alherbawi's group is conducting ongoing field studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can really improve the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them versus any additional deterioration brought on by dust storms," he says.
But the Qatar task's success still depends upon many aspects, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another essential step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.
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 explains that years of research and development have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a years ago.
"We were able to quicken the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he specifies, 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 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 transport sector that still beckons as the perfect 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 assessment has yet to be completed, but he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related 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 air travel," he states. "We think any such growth will occur, [by clarifying] the definition of abject land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any nation."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially responsible depends on complex aspects, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there's the bothersome issue of attaining high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian government revealed its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has actually stirred debate over prospective repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently negative in the majority 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 discusses.
Other scientists chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists remain doubtful 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 effective, that we will have a great deal of associated land-use change," says 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 actually performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use problems associated with expansion of different crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not handle the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of producing environmental issues."
Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains concerned about prospective environmental costs.
He recommends limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in truly bad soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterilized 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 involved issues are greater than the prospective benefits."
Jatropha's international future stays unpredictable. And its prospective as a tool in the battle against climate modification can just be opened, state many experts, by preventing the list of problems connected with its first boom.
Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market 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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