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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could 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 resulted in plantation failures almost all over. The consequences of the jatropha crash was polluted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some scientists continue pursuing the incredibly elusive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they state, is reliant on splitting the yield problem and addressing the damaging land-use issues intertwined with its original failure.
The sole staying big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have been achieved and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree native 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 broken down, 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 staying large 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 model of searching for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the process that was missed [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a key function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transport carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom could bring additional advantages, with jatropha likewise a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some scientists are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is vital to gain from previous mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not just by poor yields, however by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale offers lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs checking out promising brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its guarantee as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from lawns, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple purported virtues was a capability to thrive on abject or "minimal" lands; therefore, it was declared it would never ever complete with food crops, so the theory went.
At that time, 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 amazing; that can grow without too much fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is harmful."
Governments, worldwide agencies, financiers and business purchased into the hype, releasing efforts 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 incredible biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Buddies of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha's high demands for land would indeed bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "growing outmatched both scientific understanding of the crop's potential as well as an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can flourish on minimal 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 fail as expected yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and tolerate drought conditions, as declared, however yields remained bad.
"In my opinion, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under relatively poorer conditions, produced a huge issue," resulting in "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise afflicted by environmental, social and economic problems, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.
Studies found that land-use modification for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha curcas plantations due to associated forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation might never ever be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, but making use of fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was positioned on limited land, however the idea of marginal land is really elusive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha curcas plantations in the country over numerous years, and found that a lax definition of "minimal" meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was frequently illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... presently nobody is using [land] for farming doesn't indicate that no one is using it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha curcas
There are essential lessons to be learned from the experience with jatropha curcas, state experts, which should be followed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in investment], but sadly not of research, and action was taken based upon 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 hype was winding down, Muys and associates published a paper citing crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he describes, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for upfront research study might be used to other prospective biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for example, his team launched a paper examining 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 marginal land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a considerable and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge spaces." Use of such cautionary data could prevent inefficient monetary speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that might work as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We wished to prevent [them going] in the same instructions of premature hype and fail, like jatropha."
Gasparatos underlines essential requirements that should be fulfilled before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and an all set market needs to be available.
"Basically, the crop requires to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we know how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."
How biofuel lands are gotten is likewise key, states Ahmed. Based upon 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 documented in order to decrease a few of the problems we observed."
A jatropha return?
Despite all these obstacles, some scientists still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel service - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some potential, however it requires to be the best product, grown in the right 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 may lower airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.
Alherbawi's team is carrying out continuous field studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he envisages 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 agricultural lands, and protect them against any more deterioration brought on by dust storms," he says.
But the Qatar job's success still hinges on many factors, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another important step, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production innovation that uses the whole 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 discusses that years of research and development have resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade ago.
"We had the ability to accelerate the yield cycle, enhance 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 project 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 byproducts might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal substitute (crucial in Africa where much wood is still burned for cooking), and even bioplastics.
But it is the transportation 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 transition 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 thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 aspects - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "We believe any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [allowing] no competition with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any nation."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha curcas can really be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends on intricate elements, including where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state experts. Then there's the unpleasant issue of attaining high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government announced its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels push that has stirred debate over possible consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep problem, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which became bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often negative in most of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he explains.
Other scientists chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists stay skeptical of the eco-friendly viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it possibly 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. trainee with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega mentions past land-use problems connected with expansion of various crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not cope with the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of creating environmental issues."
Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well suited to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about possible environmental expenses.
He recommends restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in truly poor soils in need of remediation. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in extremely 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 problems are greater than the potential benefits."
Jatropha's international future stays uncertain. And its potential as a tool in the fight against environment change can only be unlocked, say numerous specialists, by preventing the litany of difficulties associated with its first boom.
Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian thinks its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" and that the resurgence is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market 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 via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
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