Jatropha: The Biofuel That Bombed Seeks A Path To Redemption

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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was hugely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on abject lands throughout 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 led to plantation failures nearly everywhere. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, depends on cracking the yield problem and dealing with the damaging land-use issues linked with its original failure.

The sole remaining big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have been accomplished and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds important lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.


At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree belonging 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 deteriorated, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields fell flat.


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 comeback is on.


"All those companies 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 procedure that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.


Having gained from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant might yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transport carbon emissions at the international level. A new boom could bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.


But some scientists are hesitant, noting 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 necessary to discover from previous errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.


Experts likewise recommend that jatropha's tale offers lessons for scientists and business owners exploring promising 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 turfs, trees and other plants not derived from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple supposed virtues was an ability to thrive on abject or "marginal" lands; therefore, it was declared it would never ever take on food crops, so the theory went.


Back then, jatropha ticked all the boxes, states Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that appeared miraculous; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too many pesticides, or excessive demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food because it is poisonous."


Governments, worldwide firms, investors and business bought into the hype, introducing 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 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 needs for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a global evaluation 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 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, only 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 might grow on abject lands and endure dry spell conditions, as declared, but yields stayed poor.


"In my opinion, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and potential to grow under relatively poorer conditions, developed 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 financial problems, say specialists. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.


Studies discovered that land-use modification for jatropha curcas in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico found the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon debt might never ever be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, but using 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 located on marginal land, however the concept of minimal land is very elusive," discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the country over a number of years, and discovered that a lax meaning of "limited" meant that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was typically illusory.


"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The truth that ... presently nobody is using [land] for farming does not imply that no one is using it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you might not always see from satellite imagery."


Learning from jatropha


There are key lessons to be learned from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which should be observed when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.


"There was a boom [in financial investment], but regrettably not of research, 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 released a paper citing key lessons.


Fundamentally, he describes, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This important requirement for upfront research study might be used to other possible biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for instance, his team 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 abject and minimal land. But Muys's research showed yields to be highly 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 understanding gaps." Use of such cautionary data might prevent wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.


"There are other very appealing trees or plants that might function as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We desired to prevent [them going] in the same direction of early hype and fail, like jatropha."


Gasparatos underlines crucial requirements that should be fulfilled before moving ahead with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a ready market should be offered.


"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [clinical understanding] at a level that we know how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd."


How biofuel lands are gotten is likewise key, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were purchased for production, authorities need to guarantee that "standards are put in location to inspect how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to decrease some of the problems we observed."


A jatropha comeback?


Despite all these challenges, some scientists still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha curcas might be an important biofuel service - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."


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


Alherbawi's group is conducting continuous field research studies to improve jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he imagines 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 agricultural lands, and safeguard them versus any further wear and tear triggered by dust storms," he says.


But the Qatar job's success still hinges on numerous elements, not least the capability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another crucial action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that uses the whole 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 discusses that years of research study and development have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a years ago.


"We had the ability to quicken 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 project is to expand our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."


Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is looking at. The fruit and its byproducts could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal alternative (crucial 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 as soon as again reopened with the energy transition drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."


A complete 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 2 elements - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "Our company believe any such growth will take place, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [enabling] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any country."


Where next for jatropha?


Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially accountable depends upon complex factors, including where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there's the unpleasant issue of achieving high yields.


Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels push that has actually stirred argument over potential consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep problem, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.


Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which ended up being problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically unfavorable in most of the jatropha websites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he describes.


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 perhaps becomes so successful, that we will have a lot of associated land-use modification," 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 conducted research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.


Avila-Ortega mentions past land-use problems associated with growth of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not cope with the personal sector doing whatever they desire, in regards to creating ecological problems."


Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains concerned about potential ecological expenses.


He recommends limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in genuinely 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 way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing method for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved issues are higher than the potential benefits."


Jatropha's worldwide future stays uncertain. And its potential as a tool in the battle versus climate change can just be opened, say lots of experts, by avoiding the list of difficulties connected with its first boom.


Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a halt 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 industry now," he says, "to team up 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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).


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


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