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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 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 resulted in plantation failures nearly everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they state, is reliant on splitting the yield issue and dealing with the harmful land-use problems linked with its initial failure.

The sole remaining big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have been accomplished and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this return 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 pledge as a sustainable source of biofuel that might 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 study and advancement, the sole staying big plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha return is on.

"All those companies that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play model of searching for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you require to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having discovered from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he states the oily plant could yet play an essential function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, decreasing transport carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom might bring additional benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are hesitant, keeping in mind that jatropha has currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is vital to find out from past errors. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale provides lessons for researchers and business owners 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 promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from grasses, trees and other plants not obtained from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple supposed virtues was an ability to grow on degraded or "marginal" lands; thus, it was claimed it would never ever take on food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, jatropha ticked all packages, says Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that appeared incredible; 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 because it is harmful."

Governments, worldwide agencies, investors and business 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 got ready for WWF.

It didn't take long for the mirage of the miraculous 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 demands for land would certainly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global review noted that "growing surpassed both scientific 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 flourish on minimal 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 endure dry spell conditions, as declared, but yields stayed bad.

"In my opinion, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under relatively poorer conditions, developed a really big problem," leading to "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise plagued by environmental, social and financial difficulties, state 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 countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between two and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon debt might never ever be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon benefits, but 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 declare that the jatropha produced was located on limited land, however the idea of minimal land is very evasive," discusses 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 discovered that a lax meaning of "marginal" suggested that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying unblemished and unused was often illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The truth that ... presently no one is using [land] for farming doesn't suggest that no one is using it [for other purposes] There are a great deal of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite images."

Learning from jatropha

There are essential lessons to be discovered from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which ought to be heeded when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], however unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based upon supposed advantages 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 curcas hype was winding down, Muys and colleagues published a paper citing key lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This essential requirement for in advance research study might be used to other potential biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for example, his team launched a paper examining 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 revealed 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 understanding gaps." Use of such cautionary information might prevent wasteful monetary speculation and negligent 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 wished to avoid [them going] in the exact same instructions of premature hype and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that should be fulfilled before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set market needs to be readily available.

"Basically, the crop requires 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 gotten is likewise key, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities must make sure that "standards are put in place to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to decrease some of the issues we observed."

A jatropha resurgence?

Despite all these difficulties, some researchers still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel solution - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some possible, but it needs to be the ideal material, 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 method that Qatar may lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its usage as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is carrying out ongoing field research studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can actually improve the soil and farming lands, and safeguard them versus any additional degeneration brought on by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar job's success still hinges on numerous elements, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

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 and development have actually led to ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a years back.

"We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our first task 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 by-products could 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 transportation sector that still beckons as the ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has when again resumed 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 assessment has yet to be finished, but he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "We believe any such growth will occur, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [enabling] no competition with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends upon complex elements, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say specialists. Then there's the bothersome problem of accomplishing high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian government announced its intention to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels push that has stirred debate over prospective consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep problem, having been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically negative in the majority of the jatropha websites, due to the fact that 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 skeptical of the ecological viability 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," 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 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, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not manage the economic sector doing whatever they want, in regards to developing environmental problems."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well suited to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he stays concerned about potential environmental costs.

He recommends limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in truly bad soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in very sterile 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 issues are higher than the potential advantages."

Jatropha's worldwide future remains uncertain. And its prospective as a tool in the battle versus climate 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 stop in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he states, "to team up 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).

A liquid biofuels primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world effects

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