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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree native to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on abject lands throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia.
A jatropha rush took place, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields resulted in plantation failures almost all over. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they say, depends on splitting the yield issue and dealing with the hazardous land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole remaining large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have been attained and a 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 guarantee as a sustainable source of biofuel that could be grown on broken down, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields failed.
Now, after years of research and advancement, the sole remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha resurgence is on.
"All those business that failed, embraced a plug-and-play model of searching for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to commercialize 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 an essential role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transport carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also 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 capacity, then it is important to learn from previous errors. During the first boom, jatropha curcas plantations were obstructed not just by poor yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts likewise suggest that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and business owners exploring promising 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 lawns, 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 grow on degraded or "marginal" lands; thus, it was declared it would never take on 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, a lot of pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not compete with food because it is poisonous."
Governments, global agencies, investors and business bought into the hype, introducing efforts to plant, or pledge 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 got ready 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 known at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high demands for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review noted that "cultivation surpassed both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity along with an understanding of how the crop suits 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 stop working as anticipated yields declined to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and endure drought conditions, as declared, but yields stayed poor.
"In my opinion, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under relatively poorer conditions, developed 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 also plagued by ecological, social and economic problems, state experts. 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 nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation may never be recovered." In India, production showed carbon advantages, however using fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was situated on limited land, however the idea of marginal land is really elusive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the nation over numerous years, and discovered that a lax definition of "limited" suggested that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... presently no one is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't indicate that nobody is utilizing it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are essential lessons to be learned from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which must be followed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], however unfortunately not of research study, and action was taken based upon supposed 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 hype was winding down, Muys and coworkers published a paper pointing out key lessons.
Fundamentally, he describes, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This vital requirement for upfront research might be used to other prospective biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for instance, his team launched a paper evaluating the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel pledge.
Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on abject and minimal land. But Muys's research study showed 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 data could avoid wasteful financial speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.
"There are other extremely promising trees or plants that might function as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys says. "We desired to avoid [them going] in the very same instructions of early buzz and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights important requirements that must be satisfied before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields must be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, 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 states. Jatropha "was practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."
How biofuel lands are gotten is also essential, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities need to make sure that "standards are put in place to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to minimize some of the issues we observed."
A jatropha return?
Despite all these obstacles, some researchers still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some prospective, however it requires to be the ideal material, grown in the best 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 way that Qatar might decrease airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% reduction of "cradle to grave" emissions.
Alherbawi's group is carrying out ongoing field research studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can truly enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them versus any additional degeneration brought on by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar project's success still depends upon numerous elements, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production innovation that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.
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 ranges of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were lacking more than a years back.
"We were able to quicken the yield cycle, improve the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first project 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 could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal alternative (important 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 when again resumed with the energy transition drive for oil business 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 says. "We believe any such growth will occur, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [permitting] no competition with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any country."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends upon complicated factors, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say specialists. Then there's the bothersome problem of achieving high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government announced its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has actually stirred argument over potential repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep trouble, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often unfavorable in most 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 explains.
Other scientists 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 possibly ends up being so effective, that we will have a lot of associated land-use change," 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 actually carried out research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use issues related to growth of various crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the personal sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of producing ecological problems."
Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays concerned about prospective environmental costs.
He recommends restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it only in really bad soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in very sterilized wastelands," he discusses. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are higher than the possible advantages."
Jatropha's international future remains unpredictable. And its prospective as a tool in the battle versus environment change can just be unlocked, say many professionals, by preventing the litany of problems related to its first boom.
Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the resurgence is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry 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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
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