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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 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 guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they state, depends on breaking the yield problem and resolving the hazardous land-use issues linked with its initial failure.
The sole remaining large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have been achieved and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback fails, 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, 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 might be grown on degraded, 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 return is on.
"All those business that stopped working, embraced 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 procedure that was missed out on [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.
Having discovered from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant might yet play a key function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, decreasing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A new boom could bring extra benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some scientists are doubtful, keeping in mind that jatropha has currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is necessary to gain from past errors. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not only by bad yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.
Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and business owners checking out appealing 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 derived from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple supposed virtues was a capability to thrive on degraded or "limited" lands; therefore, it was declared it would never 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 incredible; that can grow without too much fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food due to the fact that it is dangerous."
Governments, worldwide companies, investors and business purchased into the hype, 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 research study got ready 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 understood at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha curcas's high demands for land would indeed bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global evaluation noted that "cultivation surpassed both clinical understanding of the crop's potential in addition to an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can grow on marginal 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, only 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to fail as expected yields declined to emerge. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and endure drought conditions, as declared, but yields remained bad.
"In my opinion, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and potential to grow under fairly poorer conditions, produced a huge problem," leading to "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also afflicted by environmental, social and financial troubles, say 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 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 forest loss ranged in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon advantages, but the use of fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was located on limited land, however the concept of minimal land is extremely elusive," explains 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 definition of "marginal" meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was typically illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The fact that ... currently no one is using [land] for farming doesn't imply that nobody is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you might not necessarily see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are key lessons to be discovered from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which should be followed 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 upon alleged benefits 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 hype was winding down, Muys and coworkers released a paper citing essential lessons.
Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for upfront research could be applied to other potential biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for example, his team released a paper evaluating 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 revealed yields to be extremely 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 understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary information could prevent wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.
"There are other very promising trees or plants that might work as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys says. "We wanted to avoid [them going] in the same direction of early buzz and fail, like jatropha."
Gasparatos underlines crucial requirements that should be satisfied before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and an all set market should be available.
"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [clinical understanding] at a level that we know how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."
How biofuel lands are gotten is also essential, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were bought for production, authorities should ensure that "guidelines are put in location to inspect how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to lower some of the problems we observed."
A jatropha comeback?
Despite all these difficulties, some researchers still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel solution - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I think jatropha has some potential, but it needs to be the ideal material, grown in the best location, and so on," Muys stated.
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 may minimize airline carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.
Alherbawi's team is conducting continuous field studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can really improve the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them against any additional deterioration caused by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar task's success still depends upon lots of elements, not least the capability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production technology that uses the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.
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) dealing with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian explains that years of research and advancement have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a years earlier.
"We were able to speed up the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, 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 might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (important in Africa where much wood is still burned for cooking), and even bioplastics.
But it is the transportation sector that still beckons as the perfect 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 complete jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be completed, however he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with 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 expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the definition of abject land, [permitting] no competition with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any country."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially accountable depends upon complex elements, consisting of 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 nagging issue of achieving high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian government revealed its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has stirred argument over possible repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep trouble, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which ended up being troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically unfavorable 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 discusses.
Other scientists chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain 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 lot of associated land-use change," 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 performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use problems associated with expansion of numerous crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of developing environmental issues."
Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well suited to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about potential ecological expenses.
He suggests limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in truly bad soils in need of remediation. "Jatropha might be one of those plants that can grow in really sterilized wastelands," he explains. "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 possible advantages."
Jatropha's global future stays unsure. And its prospective as a tool in the fight against climate change can only be unlocked, state numerous professionals, by preventing the litany of troubles associated with its very 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" and that the return 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 through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
A liquid biofuels primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world effects
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