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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was hugely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands across 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 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 pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, is dependent on cracking the yield problem and resolving the damaging land-use issues linked with its original failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback fails, 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, an unassuming shrub-like tree native 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 broken down, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields failed.
Now, after years of research study and advancement, the sole staying big plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha resurgence is on.
"All those business that stopped working, 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 out on [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 could yet play a key function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A new boom could bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some scientists are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is necessary to gain from previous mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha 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 operates.
Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale provides 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 promise 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 flourish on abject or "limited" lands; thus, it was declared it would never take on food crops, so the theory went.
Back then, jatropha ticked all packages, says Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that seemed amazing; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food since it is dangerous."
Governments, worldwide companies, financiers and business purchased into the hype, introducing initiatives to plant, or guarantee to plant, countless 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 long for the mirage of the miraculous biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known at the time as Swaziland) warned that jatropha's high demands for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "cultivation exceeded both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity in addition to an understanding of how the crop fits into 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, only 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to fail as expected yields declined to materialize. Jatropha could grow on abject lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as claimed, however yields remained bad.
"In my opinion, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and possible to grow under relatively poorer conditions, developed a huge issue," resulting in "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also pestered by environmental, social and financial troubles, state experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural locations were reported.
Studies discovered that land-use change 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 financial obligation may never be recovered." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, but making use of fertilizers led to 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 situated on limited land, however the idea of limited land is very evasive," discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the nation over a number of years, and discovered that a lax definition of "marginal" meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying unblemished and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The fact that ... currently no one is using [land] for farming does not indicate that no one is using it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite imagery."
Learning from jatropha
There are key lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which need to be followed when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], however unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based on alleged 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 buzz was unwinding, Muys and colleagues released a paper pointing out essential lessons.
Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This important requirement for in advance research could be applied to other prospective biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for instance, his team launched a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel promise.
Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on abject and minimal land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary data could prevent inefficient financial speculation and reckless land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other very promising trees or plants that might work as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We desired to prevent [them going] in the exact same instructions of early buzz and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that need to be fulfilled before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a prepared market must 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 virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."
How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise key, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were bought 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 comeback?
Despite all these challenges, some scientists still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel service - particularly 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 place, 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 way that Qatar may lower 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 team is performing continuous field research studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can actually improve the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them versus any further degeneration triggered by dust storms," he says.
But the Qatar job's success still hinges on many aspects, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another essential action, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.
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) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian discusses that years of research and development have actually led to varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were lacking more than a years ago.
"We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. "Our first task is to broaden our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."
Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is looking at. The fruit and its by-products 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 transport sector that still beckons as the perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually as soon as again resumed with the energy transition drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A complete jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be completed, but he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he states. "We believe any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any country."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends on intricate aspects, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say experts. Then there's the irritating issue of accomplishing high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian government revealed its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels push that has stirred debate over prospective effects. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which ended up being problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically 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 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 skeptical of the ecological viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps ends up being so effective, 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. student with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has conducted research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega mentions previous land-use problems associated with expansion of different crops, including 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 developing environmental issues."
Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays concerned about prospective environmental expenses.
He suggests limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it just in really poor soils in need of repair. "Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are greater than the prospective benefits."
Jatropha's global future remains unpredictable. And its potential as a tool in the fight versus climate change can only be opened, state numerous professionals, by avoiding the litany of difficulties related to its very first boom.
Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "to team up with us to develop and expand the supply chain of jatropha."
Banner image: Jatropha curcas trees in Hawai'i. Image by Forest and Kim Starr via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
A liquid biofuels primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts
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