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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was wildly promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded 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 led to plantation failures nearly all over. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they say, is dependent on breaking the yield issue and dealing with the harmful land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole remaining large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been attained and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this resurgence fails, 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, a simple shrub-like tree native to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its guarantee 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 study and development, the sole staying large plantation concentrated on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha resurgence is on.
"All those business that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play design of scouting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the process that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant might yet play an essential role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, decreasing transport carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom might bring additional advantages, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some researchers are doubtful, noting that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is necessary to gain from past mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered 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 entrepreneurs exploring promising brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from lawns, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several purported virtues was an ability to thrive on abject or "limited" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never contend with food crops, so the theory went.
At that time, jatropha ticked all packages, states 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 many pesticides, or excessive demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food since it is harmful."
Governments, global companies, financiers and companies bought into the buzz, releasing efforts to plant, or promise to plant, countless 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 got ready for WWF.
It didn't take long for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high needs for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international evaluation noted that "cultivation surpassed both scientific understanding of the crop's capacity as well as an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can prosper 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 expected yields declined to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and tolerate drought conditions, as declared, but yields stayed poor.
"In my opinion, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under fairly poorer conditions, created a huge issue," resulting in "ignored yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also plagued by environmental, social and economic problems, state specialists. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural areas were reported.
Studies found that land-use modification for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon financial obligation might never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon advantages, however making use of fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you look at most of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was situated on minimal land, but the idea of minimal land is extremely evasive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha curcas plantations in the nation over several years, and found that a lax meaning of "marginal" meant that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming does not mean that nobody is using it [for other functions] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you might not always see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are crucial lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which need to be hearkened when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], but sadly not of research, and action was taken based upon supposed advantages of jatropha," says Bart Muys, a teacher in the Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2014, as the jatropha hype was unwinding, Muys and associates published a paper citing crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he describes, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for upfront research study might be applied to other prospective biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for instance, his group released 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 thought about a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary data could prevent inefficient monetary speculation and negligent land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other extremely promising trees or plants that could function as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We wanted to avoid [them going] in the exact same direction of early hype and fail, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights vital requirements that should be fulfilled before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields must be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a prepared market should be available.
"Basically, the crop requires to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so strange."
How biofuel lands are acquired is also crucial, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities should make sure that "standards are put in location to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to minimize a few of the problems we observed."
A jatropha resurgence?
Despite all these obstacles, some researchers still think that under the right conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel service - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some potential, but it needs to be the best material, grown in the ideal location, 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 method that Qatar might minimize airline company 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 team is performing ongoing field research studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can really improve the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them against any additional degeneration brought on by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar task's success still depends upon many elements, not least the capability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another essential action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.
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) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian explains that years of research and advancement have resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade back.
"We were able to speed up the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. "Our 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 by-products could 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 transport 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 look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A total jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be finished, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "Our company believe any such growth will happen, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [permitting] no competition with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any country."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially responsible depends upon intricate elements, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state experts. Then there's the unpleasant issue of accomplishing 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 actually stirred dispute over possible consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many past plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently negative in most of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he discusses.
Other researchers chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists remain 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 effective, 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. trainee with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has conducted research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega cites past land-use problems connected with growth of numerous crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not cope with the economic sector doing whatever they want, in regards to creating environmental problems."
Researchers in Mexico are currently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages may be well suited to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about possible environmental expenses.
He recommends limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it just in genuinely bad soils in requirement of restoration. "Jatropha might be one of those plants that can grow in very sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved issues are greater than the potential advantages."
Jatropha's global future stays unpredictable. And its possible as a tool in the battle against climate modification can only be opened, state numerous professionals, by avoiding the litany of problems related to its first boom.
Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "to team up with us to develop and expand the supply chain of jatropha."
Banner image: Jatropha curcas trees in Hawai'i. Image by Forest and Kim Starr through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
A liquid biofuels primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts
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