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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on degraded 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 caused plantation failures nearly all over. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, is reliant on cracking the yield problem and attending to the damaging land-use issues linked with its original failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, 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 native 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 and advancement, the sole staying large plantation focused on growing jatropha curcas remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha return 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 [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.
Having learned from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant might yet play a crucial role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transport carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom might bring extra advantages, with jatropha curcas also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some scientists are hesitant, noting that jatropha has actually already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is important to gain from previous mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by bad yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts likewise recommend that jatropha's tale offers lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs checking out promising brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major bust
jatropha curcas's early 21st-century appeal originated from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from turfs, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple supposed virtues was an ability to prosper on abject or "limited" 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 seemed incredible; that can grow without too much fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or excessive demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food since it is dangerous."
Governments, international firms, financiers and business purchased into the hype, releasing initiatives 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 long for the mirage of the incredible 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 needs for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "growing surpassed 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 prosper 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 started to fail as anticipated yields refused to materialize. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as claimed, however yields remained bad.
"In my opinion, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under fairly poorer conditions, created a really big problem," resulting in "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise pestered by ecological, social and financial difficulties, state professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural locations were reported.
Studies found that land-use change 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 curcas plantations due to involved forest loss varied between two and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon benefits, however using fertilizers resulted in boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you look at most of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was positioned on minimal land, however the concept of limited land is really elusive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the country over numerous years, and discovered that a lax definition of "limited" implied that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha curcas plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The fact that ... presently no one is using [land] for farming does not suggest that nobody is utilizing it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you might not always see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are crucial lessons to be learned from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which should be followed when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in investment], however sadly not of research, and action was taken based upon supposed benefits of jatropha," states Bart Muys, a teacher in the Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2014, as the jatropha hype was unwinding, Muys and coworkers published a paper mentioning crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he describes, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This important requirement for upfront research might be applied to other prospective biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for instance, his group launched a paper analyzing 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 limited land. But Muys's research showed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a substantial and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data might avoid wasteful monetary speculation and negligent land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other very promising trees or plants that might act as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We wanted to avoid [them going] in the exact same direction of premature hype and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos underlines vital requirements that must be fulfilled before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and an all set market should be readily available.
"Basically, the crop requires to be domesticated, or [clinical understanding] at a level that we know how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."
How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise essential, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities must ensure that "guidelines are put in place to inspect how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to decrease some of the problems we observed."
A jatropha resurgence?
Despite all these obstacles, some scientists still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some potential, but it needs to be the right product, grown in the best place, 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 minimize airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its usage as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to grave" emissions.
Alherbawi's group is performing continuous field research studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can really enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them against any further degeneration triggered by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar job's success still depends upon lots of elements, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another crucial action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.
Back in Ghana, jOil is presently handling 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 resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a years ago.
"We had the ability to accelerate the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our 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 (crucial 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 when again resumed with the energy transition drive for oil business and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A complete jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be finished, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 elements - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he states. "We think any such expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [allowing] no competition with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any nation."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially responsible depends upon complicated aspects, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state professionals. Then there's the irritating problem of accomplishing high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian government announced its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has actually stirred dispute over prospective effects. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep difficulty, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many past plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often negative in the majority of the jatropha websites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he describes.
Other scientists chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay 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 ends up being so successful, 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. trainee with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use issues related to growth of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the economic sector doing whatever they want, in terms of creating environmental problems."
Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains concerned about possible environmental costs.
He suggests limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it only in really poor soils in need of repair. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in very sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are higher than the prospective benefits."
Jatropha's international future stays unsure. And its possible as a tool in the fight against environment modification can only be unlocked, state numerous professionals, by avoiding the list of troubles related to its very 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 "imminent" and that the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "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 guide: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts
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