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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was wildly promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on abject 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 led to plantation failures almost all over. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, is dependent on splitting the yield issue and dealing with the harmful land-use concerns linked with its initial failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have been achieved and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this resurgence falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any promising 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 deteriorated, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields fell flat.
Now, after years of research study and development, the sole remaining big plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha comeback is on.
"All those business that failed, adopted a plug-and-play design of searching for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the process that was missed out on [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the errors of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant might yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom could bring extra benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some scientists are hesitant, keeping in mind that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is vital to gain from previous errors. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale provides lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs checking out promising new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal originated from its guarantee as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from grasses, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous supposed virtues was an ability to prosper on degraded or "limited" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never ever complete with food crops, so the theory went.
At that time, jatropha ticked all the boxes, states 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, a lot of pesticides, or excessive demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not compete with food since it is harmful."
Governments, international agencies, investors and companies bought 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 long for the mirage of the incredible biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high demands for land would certainly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "cultivation outpaced both scientific understanding of the crop's capacity in addition to an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can grow 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, just 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to stop working as anticipated yields declined to materialize. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and endure drought conditions, as claimed, but yields stayed bad.
"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and possible to grow under relatively poorer conditions, produced a huge issue," resulting in "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise afflicted by ecological, social and financial problems, say specialists. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural areas 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 discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss varied in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation might never ever be recovered." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, but using fertilizers led to 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 marginal land, however 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 country over numerous years, and found that a lax meaning of "marginal" suggested that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was frequently 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 functions] There are a great deal of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you might not necessarily see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are crucial lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which should be observed when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], however regrettably not of research, and action was taken based upon alleged advantages of jatropha," says 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 unwinding, Muys and coworkers released a paper mentioning crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he explains, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This vital requirement for upfront research could be used to other potential biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for example, his group launched a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel pledge.
Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and minimal land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a substantial and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary information might prevent wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.
"There are other really appealing trees or plants that might work as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We wanted to prevent [them going] in the very same direction of premature buzz and fail, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights vital requirements that should be satisfied before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and an all set market needs to be readily available.
"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd."
How biofuel lands are gotten is also key, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities must make sure that "standards are put in location to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to lower a few of the problems we observed."
A jatropha return?
Despite all these difficulties, some scientists still think that under the right conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel solution - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some possible, however it requires to be the ideal product, grown in the ideal place, 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 use as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to grave" emissions.
Alherbawi's group is performing continuous field research 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 (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can truly enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and secure them against any further degeneration brought on by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar task's success still hinges on many aspects, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another important action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.
Back in Ghana, jOil is currently managing more than 1,300 hectares (1,830 acres) of jatropha, and growing a pilot plot on 300 hectares (740 acres) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian describes that years of research study and advancement have actually resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a years earlier.
"We were able to speed up the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, 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 looking at. The fruit and its by-products 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 perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually when again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A complete jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be completed, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "Our company believe any such expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the definition 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 really be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially accountable depends upon intricate factors, 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 nagging problem of achieving high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government announced its intention to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has stirred dispute over possible consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep problem, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many past plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically negative in the majority of the jatropha websites, 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 scientists stay doubtful of the ecological viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially becomes 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. student with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has actually performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use issues connected with expansion of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not manage the personal sector doing whatever they want, in regards to producing ecological issues."
Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays worried about possible environmental expenses.
He recommends limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it just in genuinely poor soils in requirement of restoration. "Jatropha might be one of those plants that can grow in really sterilized wastelands," he discusses. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing method for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are higher than the prospective benefits."
Jatropha's global future stays uncertain. And its potential as a tool in the battle against environment change can only be opened, state numerous professionals, by preventing the litany of problems connected with its first boom.
Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "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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