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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" 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 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 resulted in plantation failures nearly all over. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some scientists continue pursuing the incredibly elusive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they say, depends on breaking the yield issue and attending to the damaging land-use problems linked with its original failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have been attained and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this return fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
At the beginning 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 pledge as a sustainable source of biofuel that could 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 development, the sole remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on.
"All those companies that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play design of searching for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This is a part of the process that was missed [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he states the oily plant might yet play an essential function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, decreasing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some researchers are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is vital to discover from previous errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not just by bad yields, however by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.
Experts likewise suggest that jatropha's tale uses lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs checking out appealing brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, significant bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed 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 supposed virtues was an ability to thrive on degraded or "minimal" lands; thus, it was claimed it would never compete with 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 miraculous; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, too numerous pesticides, or excessive demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food since it is dangerous."
Governments, global companies, financiers and companies purchased into the hype, launching 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 research study prepared for WWF.
It didn't take long for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha's high needs for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "cultivation outmatched both clinical understanding of the crop's potential in addition to an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can flourish 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, only 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations began to fail as anticipated yields declined to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as claimed, but yields remained poor.
"In my opinion, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under fairly poorer conditions, developed an extremely big problem," leading to "ignored yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise plagued by ecological, social and financial troubles, say experts. 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 nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation might never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon benefits, but making use of fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was situated on limited land, however the idea of minimal land is very evasive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker 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 "limited" indicated that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming does not imply that nobody 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 essential lessons to be found out from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which should be observed when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], but unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based on 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 buzz was winding down, Muys and associates published a paper mentioning key lessons.
Fundamentally, he explains, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for upfront research might be used to other prospective biofuel crops, he states. Last year, for instance, his team released a paper evaluating the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel promise.
Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and minimal land. But Muys's research showed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding gaps." Use of such cautionary information could prevent wasteful monetary speculation and negligent land conversion for brand-new biofuels.
"There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that might function as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We wished to avoid [them going] in the exact same instructions of early hype and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that must be satisfied before moving ahead with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields must be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a ready market must be offered.
"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we know 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 essential, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were bought for production, authorities must ensure that "standards are put in location to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to lower a few of the issues we observed."
A jatropha resurgence?
Despite all these difficulties, some scientists still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some possible, however it needs to be the right product, grown in the best 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 manner in which Qatar might lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its usage as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to grave" emissions.
Alherbawi's group is conducting continuous field studies to improve jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can truly improve the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them versus any more degeneration triggered by dust storms," he says.
But the Qatar project's success still depends upon lots of factors, not least the ability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another crucial step, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production technology that utilizes 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) dealing with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian discusses that years of research study and development have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade ago.
"We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, enhance the yield variety and enhance the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first job is to broaden 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 could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal alternative (essential 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 shift drive for oil business and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A total jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be completed, but 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 an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "Our company believe any such growth will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [allowing] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any nation."
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 instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there's the irritating problem of achieving high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its intent 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 trouble, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often unfavorable in most of the jatropha websites, since 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 environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay skeptical 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 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. student with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has carried out research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use issues connected with expansion of different crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not cope with the economic sector doing whatever they want, in regards to creating environmental problems."
Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages may be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains worried about potential ecological costs.
He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in truly bad soils in need of repair. "Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in extremely 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 associated problems are greater than the potential advantages."
Jatropha's global future stays unpredictable. And its prospective as a tool in the fight against environment change can just be unlocked, state many experts, by avoiding the list of troubles associated with its first boom.
Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the resurgence is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he states, "to collaborate 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).
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