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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was extremely 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 almost everywhere. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they say, is reliant on breaking the yield problem and attending to the damaging land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole staying big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds essential lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming 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 might be grown on degraded, 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 remaining big plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha return is on.
"All those business that failed, adopted a plug-and-play design of scouting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant might yet play a crucial role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transportation carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some scientists 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 only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts likewise recommend that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs exploring appealing brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from grasses, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous supposed virtues was an ability to thrive on degraded or "limited" lands; hence, it was declared it would never ever 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 miraculous; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, too lots of pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food since it is toxic."
Governments, worldwide agencies, financiers and business purchased into the hype, introducing efforts to plant, or pledge 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 research study got ready for WWF.
It didn't take wish for the mirage of the miraculous 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 certainly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international evaluation noted that "growing outmatched both scientific 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 stop working as expected yields refused to materialize. jatropha curcas might grow on degraded lands and tolerate drought conditions, as claimed, however yields remained bad.
"In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under fairly poorer conditions, created an extremely huge problem," resulting in "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also pestered by ecological, social and financial problems, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.
Studies found 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 discovered the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss varied between 2 and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon financial obligation might never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon advantages, 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 concept of limited land is really elusive," discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the nation over numerous years, and found that a lax meaning of "minimal" indicated that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was frequently illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The fact that ... currently no one is using [land] for farming does not mean that no one is using it [for other functions] There are a lot of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you might not necessarily see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are essential lessons to be learned from the experience with jatropha, say experts, which should be followed when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in investment], however unfortunately not of research study, 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 associates published a paper citing crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he explains, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This important requirement for in advance research study could be used to other prospective biofuel crops, he says. 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 degraded and minimal land. But Muys's research study showed 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 knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data could prevent wasteful financial speculation and negligent land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other very promising trees or plants that could function as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We wished to prevent [them going] in the same instructions of premature buzz and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos underlines important requirements that need to be fulfilled before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set 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 virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."
How biofuel lands are acquired is likewise essential, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were acquired for production, authorities must make sure that "standards are put in place to examine how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to minimize a few of the problems we observed."
A jatropha resurgence?
Despite all these challenges, some scientists still believe that under the right conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "responsible for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some possible, but it requires to be the right product, grown in the ideal place, 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 manner in which Qatar might reduce airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its usage as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.
Alherbawi's team is carrying out continuous field studies to increase 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 implementation of the green belt can actually improve the soil and farming lands, and protect them against any further wear and tear triggered by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar project's success still depends upon lots of aspects, not least the capability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another crucial action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes 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) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian discusses that years of research study and development have actually led to varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were lacking more than a years earlier.
"We were able to accelerate the yield cycle, improve the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first job is to expand 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 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 as soon as again resumed with the energy shift 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 believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 elements - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "We believe any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the definition of abject land, [permitting] no competition with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any nation."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially responsible depends on complex elements, including where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say professionals. Then there's the irritating problem of accomplishing high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its intention to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has stirred dispute over prospective repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep trouble, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently unfavorable 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 describes.
Other scientists chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers 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 becomes 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 carried out research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega mentions previous land-use problems related to growth of different crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not deal with the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of developing ecological problems."
Researchers in Mexico are currently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains concerned about potential ecological costs.
He suggests restricting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in really bad soils in need of repair. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in really sterilized wastelands," he describes. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery method for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved issues are greater than the possible advantages."
Jatropha's global future remains unsure. And its possible as a tool in the fight versus climate modification can just be opened, state lots of professionals, by preventing the litany of troubles connected with its first boom.
Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "to collaborate 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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
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