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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple 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 occurred, 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 polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive pledge of high-yielding jatropha curcas. A return, they say, is reliant on cracking the yield issue and resolving the hazardous land-use problems linked with its initial failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return 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, a simple shrub-like tree belonging to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its pledge 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 failed.
Now, after years of research and advancement, the sole remaining big plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha comeback is on.
"All those business that stopped working, embraced a plug-and-play model of hunting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed out on [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.
Having discovered from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant might yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some scientists are doubtful, keeping in mind that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach full capacity, then it is necessary to learn from past mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not just by bad yields, however by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.
Experts likewise suggest that jatropha's tale uses lessons for scientists and business owners checking out appealing brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from grasses, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous purported virtues was a capability to grow on degraded or "marginal" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never take on food crops, so the theory went.
At that time, jatropha ticked all the boxes, states Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that seemed amazing; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too numerous pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is dangerous."
Governments, worldwide agencies, investors and business bought into the buzz, introducing efforts to plant, or promise 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 long for the mirage of the incredible biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Buddies 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 global review kept in mind that "growing outpaced 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 grow on limited 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 expected yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and endure drought conditions, as declared, however yields stayed poor.
"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, developed a huge problem," leading to "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise pestered by ecological, social and economic troubles, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.
Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in nations 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 associated forest loss varied between 2 and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon financial obligation might never be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon advantages, however the use of fertilizers resulted in increases 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 positioned on limited land, but the idea of limited land is very evasive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the nation over a number of years, and found that a lax definition of "minimal" indicated that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't imply that nobody is utilizing it [for other purposes] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite imagery."
Learning from jatropha
There are crucial lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which should be followed when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in investment], however regrettably not of research study, and action was taken based upon alleged advantages of jatropha," says 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 winding down, Muys and colleagues released a paper mentioning crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This important requirement for upfront research could be applied to other possible biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for instance, his group released a paper evaluating the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel guarantee.
Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and minimal 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 considerable and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge spaces." Use of such cautionary information could prevent inefficient financial speculation and negligent land conversion for brand-new biofuels.
"There are other really appealing trees or plants that could serve as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys says. "We desired to prevent [them going] in the very same instructions of early buzz and fail, like jatropha curcas."
Gasparatos highlights vital requirements that should be fulfilled before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set market must be readily available.
"Basically, the crop requires 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 odd."
How biofuel lands are obtained is also key, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were bought for production, authorities need to make sure that "guidelines are put in place to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to minimize a few of the problems we observed."
A jatropha comeback?
Despite all these obstacles, some researchers still think that under the best conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel solution - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some possible, but it requires to be the best product, 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 manner in which Qatar might lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.
Alherbawi's team is carrying out ongoing field research studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can really boost the soil and agricultural lands, and secure them against any more wear and tear triggered by dust storms," he says.
But the Qatar project's success still depends upon many factors, not least the capability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another important step, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production technology that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.
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 advancement have led to varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a decade earlier.
"We had the ability to speed up the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and improve the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first project is to expand our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."
Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is looking at. The fruit and its by-products could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal alternative (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 as soon as again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A total jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be completed, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "We think any such growth will happen, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any country."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends on intricate factors, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say specialists. Then there's the irritating issue of attaining high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian government announced its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels push that has stirred debate over potential effects. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep difficulty, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently negative in the majority 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 remain doubtful of the ecological viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially ends up being so effective, that we will have a great deal of associated land-use modification," states 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 actually conducted research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega mentions previous land-use problems connected 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 desire, in regards to producing environmental issues."
Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about prospective ecological costs.
He suggests limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it only in truly bad soils in need of remediation. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in really sterile wastelands," he explains. "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 greater than the potential advantages."
Jatropha's worldwide future remains unsure. And its prospective as a tool in the fight versus environment change can just be opened, say many experts, by preventing the litany of difficulties associated with its very first boom.
Will jatropha curcas tasks that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "to team up with us to establish and broaden 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).
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