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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 degraded lands across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

A jatropha rush took place, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields caused plantation failures almost all over. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they state, depends on breaking the yield problem and dealing with the harmful land-use problems intertwined with its initial failure.

The sole remaining large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been attained and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds important lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.


At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple shrub-like tree native to Central America, was planted across 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 failed.

Now, after years of research and development, the sole remaining large plantation concentrated on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on.

"All those business that failed, embraced a plug-and-play design of searching for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the process 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 previous failures, he says the oily plant might yet play an essential role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transportation carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A new boom could bring extra benefits, with jatropha likewise a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are doubtful, noting that jatropha has actually already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is important to gain from past errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by poor yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts likewise suggest that jatropha's tale offers lessons for researchers and business owners checking out promising new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, significant bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from yards, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple purported virtues was a capability to thrive on abject or "marginal" lands; therefore, it was claimed it would never 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 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 contend with food because it is toxic."

Governments, global agencies, financiers and business purchased into the buzz, 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 wish for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Buddies of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international evaluation kept in mind that "cultivation exceeded both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity along with an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can thrive 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 began to stop working as expected yields refused to emerge. Jatropha could grow on abject lands and endure drought conditions, as declared, however yields remained bad.

"In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, produced an extremely huge issue," leading to "ignored yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also afflicted by ecological, social and financial difficulties, state experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.

Studies discovered 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 found the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon debt may never ever be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, however making use of fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you take a look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was positioned on minimal land, but the idea of limited land is extremely evasive," 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 "marginal" meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was typically illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't suggest that no one is using it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite images."

Learning from jatropha

There are essential lessons to be found out from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which ought to be heeded when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], but unfortunately not of research study, and action was taken based on supposed 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 hype was winding down, Muys and associates published a paper citing crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he explains, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This important requirement for in advance research study could be used to other potential biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for instance, his team launched 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 limited 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 considered a significant and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary information might avoid wasteful financial speculation and reckless land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other very promising 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 premature buzz and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines vital requirements that must be satisfied before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a prepared market needs to be available.

"Basically, the crop requires to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."

How biofuel lands are obtained is also key, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were acquired for production, authorities must ensure that "guidelines are put in place to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to reduce a few of the issues we observed."

A jatropha return?

Despite all these difficulties, some scientists still think that under the best conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some prospective, but it needs to be the ideal material, grown in the ideal 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 method that Qatar might reduce airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its use as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is conducting ongoing field research studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can truly enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them against any additional degeneration triggered by dust storms," he says.

But the success still depends upon many factors, not least the ability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another crucial step, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the whole of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.

Back in Ghana, jOil is currently 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 describes that years of research study and advancement have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a years ago.

"We had the ability to speed up the yield cycle, improve the yield range and enhance the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he mentions, 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 byproducts might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal substitute (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 transition 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 finished, 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 a very strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "We think any such expansion will take location, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [enabling] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends on complicated aspects, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state professionals. Then there's the unpleasant issue of accomplishing high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian government revealed its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has stirred dispute over prospective repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep difficulty, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which became bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often negative in the majority of the jatropha sites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he explains.

Other scientists chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists stay uncertain of the ecological viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it possibly 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. trainee with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has actually carried out research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out past land-use problems related to expansion of numerous crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not cope with the private sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of producing ecological problems."

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains concerned about potential environmental costs.

He recommends restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in truly poor soils in requirement of restoration. "Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in very sterilized wastelands," he describes. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are higher than the possible advantages."

Jatropha's international future stays uncertain. And its possible as a tool in the fight versus environment change can only be unlocked, state numerous professionals, by avoiding 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 role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry 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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