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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was wildly promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on abject 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 caused plantation failures almost everywhere. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.

Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, is dependent on splitting the yield issue and resolving the hazardous land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.

The sole remaining big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been achieved and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this return 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 throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its guarantee as a sustainable source of biofuel that might be grown on broken down, 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, claims the jatropha comeback is on.

"All those business that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play design of hunting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having learned from the errors of jatropha curcas's past failures, he says the oily plant might yet play a crucial role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, decreasing transport carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are hesitant, keeping in mind that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is important to gain from past mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not only by bad yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale uses lessons for scientists and business owners checking out appealing 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 turfs, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous purported virtues was a capability to prosper on degraded or "limited" lands; therefore, it was declared it would never take on food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, jatropha ticked all packages, 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 too much fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food due to the fact that it is dangerous."

Governments, global firms, investors and companies bought into the buzz, releasing initiatives 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 prepared for WWF.

It didn't take wish 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) cautioned that jatropha's high needs for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "cultivation outmatched both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity as well as an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can thrive on marginal 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 started to fail as anticipated yields declined to materialize. Jatropha could grow on abject lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as declared, however yields remained bad.

"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under fairly poorer conditions, created an extremely 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 ecological, social and financial difficulties, state experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.

Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon financial obligation might never ever 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 claim that the jatropha produced was situated on limited 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 ramifications of jatropha plantations in the nation over a number of years, and discovered that a lax definition of "marginal" suggested 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 ... presently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming does not imply that no one is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you might not necessarily see from satellite images."

Learning from jatropha

There are crucial lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which should be hearkened when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], however unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based on supposed advantages 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 mentioning key lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This important requirement for upfront research could be used to other possible biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for example, 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 study showed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a substantial and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary data might avoid inefficient monetary speculation and negligent land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other extremely promising trees or plants that might work as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We desired to avoid [them going] in the exact same direction of early buzz and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that should be satisfied before moving ahead with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market needs to be offered.

"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd."

How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise key, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were purchased for production, authorities should ensure that "standards are put in location to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to decrease some of the issues we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these obstacles, some scientists still think that under the right conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel solution - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think jatropha has some prospective, but it needs to be the right material, grown in the ideal location, and so on," Muys stated.

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 method that Qatar might minimize airline carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its usage as a jet fuel might result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is carrying out continuous field studies to improve jatropha curcas yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he imagines a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can really improve the soil and farming lands, and protect them against any more wear and tear brought on by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar task's success still hinges on many elements, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.

Back in Ghana, jOil is currently 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 study and development have actually resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a decade back.

"We had the ability to speed up the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first task 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 (important in Africa where much wood is still burned for cooking), and even bioplastics.

But it is the transport sector that still beckons as the ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually once again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil business 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 finished, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "Our company believe any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [allowing] 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, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends on intricate factors, including where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state experts. Then there's the nagging problem of attaining 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 debate over possible consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often negative in many 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 researchers chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists stay doubtful of the environmental practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially ends up being so successful, that we will have a lot of associated land-use change," states 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 on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use problems related to expansion of different crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not manage the private sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of creating ecological problems."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well fit to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains concerned about prospective ecological costs.

He suggests limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in really poor soils in need of repair. "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 method for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are higher than the possible benefits."

jatropha curcas's international future stays uncertain. And its possible as a tool in the fight against climate change can just be unlocked, say many experts, by avoiding the litany of troubles associated with its very first boom.

Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he states, "to team up with us to establish 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 guide: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts

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