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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple 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 occurred, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields caused plantation failures nearly all over. The consequences of the jatropha crash was polluted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they state, is reliant on splitting the yield issue and addressing the harmful land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole staying big jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have been achieved and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple shrub-like tree native to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its promise as a sustainable source of biofuel that could 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 resurgence is on.
"All those companies that stopped working, embraced a plug-and-play design of searching for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to commercialize 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 informed Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant might yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom might bring extra benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some researchers are skeptical, noting that jatropha has actually already 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 bad yields, however by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.
Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale offers lessons for scientists and business owners exploring appealing brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal originated from its pledge 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 a capability to grow on abject or "minimal" lands; therefore, it was declared it would never take on food crops, so the theory went.
Back then, jatropha ticked all packages, states Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that appeared amazing; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, too many pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food due to the fact that it is poisonous."
Governments, worldwide agencies, investors and companies purchased into the buzz, launching initiatives 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 research study got ready 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 needs for land would certainly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review noted that "cultivation surpassed both scientific 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 prosper on limited 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 stop working as anticipated yields declined to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as claimed, however yields stayed poor.
"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under fairly poorer conditions, produced a really huge problem," leading to "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise afflicted by environmental, social and economic troubles, state experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.
Studies discovered that land-use modification for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss varied in between two and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon debt might never be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon benefits, however using fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was located on marginal land, however the concept of marginal land is very elusive," discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the country over several years, and discovered that a lax definition of "limited" 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 reality that ... presently no one is using [land] for farming does not suggest that no one is using it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite imagery."
Learning from jatropha
There are crucial lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, say experts, which need to be hearkened when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in investment], however unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based on 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 unwinding, Muys and colleagues published a paper pointing out crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This crucial requirement for upfront research might be used to other possible biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for example, his team released 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 abject and marginal land. But Muys's research revealed yields to be extremely 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 knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data might prevent inefficient financial speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other really appealing trees or plants that could act as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We desired to avoid [them going] in the same direction of early hype and fail, like jatropha."
Gasparatos underlines vital requirements that should be fulfilled before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market should be readily available.
"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [clinical understanding] at a level that we know how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."
How biofuel lands are gotten is also crucial, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were acquired for production, authorities need to guarantee that "standards are put in location to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to decrease some of the problems we observed."
A jatropha return?
Despite all these challenges, some researchers still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel solution - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some potential, however it requires to be the right material, grown in the ideal location, and so on," Muys said.
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 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 tomb" emissions.
Alherbawi's team is performing continuous field studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can actually enhance the soil and farming lands, and protect them against any further degeneration triggered by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar job's success still depends upon lots of elements, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another essential action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that uses the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.
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 explains that years of research and development have led to varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were lacking more than a years back.
"We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, 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 taking a look at. The fruit and its byproducts might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (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 ideal 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 search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A total jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be completed, however he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected 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 aviation," he says. "Our company believe any such growth will occur, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [enabling] no competition with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any nation."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially responsible depends on intricate aspects, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design 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 intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has actually 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 previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often unfavorable in many of the jatropha sites, since 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 doubtful of the environmental practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps ends up being so successful, that we will have a lot of associated land-use change," says 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 conducted research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use issues connected with growth of numerous crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not deal with the economic sector doing whatever they want, 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 may be well fit to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he stays concerned about possible ecological expenses.
He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in genuinely poor soils in need of remediation. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in very sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are greater than the prospective advantages."
Jatropha's international future stays uncertain. And its prospective as a tool in the fight against environment modification can just be unlocked, say numerous specialists, by avoiding the litany of troubles associated with its very first boom.
Will jatropha projects 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 resurgence is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "to collaborate 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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
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