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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was hugely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands across 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 caused plantation failures nearly everywhere. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was polluted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they state, depends on cracking the yield problem and attending to the harmful land-use problems intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been achieved and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this return fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds important lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple shrub-like tree belonging to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its promise as a sustainable source of biofuel that could be grown on broken down, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields fell flat.
Now, after years of research and development, the sole staying big plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims 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 is a part of the process that was missed out on [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.
Having learned from the errors of jatropha's previous failures, he states the oily plant might yet play an essential function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transport carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom might bring extra advantages, with jatropha likewise a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some researchers are skeptical, noting that jatropha has already 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 past mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs exploring appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, significant bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its pledge 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 several purported virtues was an ability to flourish on abject or "minimal" lands; therefore, it was declared 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 amazing; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food since it is dangerous."
Governments, international companies, investors and business purchased into the buzz, launching initiatives to plant, or guarantee 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 wish 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) warned that jatropha's high needs for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, an international evaluation kept in mind that "growing outmatched both scientific 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 limited 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 tolerate drought conditions, as claimed, however yields stayed bad.
"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 pestered by environmental, social and financial troubles, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural locations were reported.
Studies discovered that land-use modification for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss varied between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation may never be recovered." In India, production showed carbon benefits, however the usage of fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you take a look at most of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was positioned on limited land, however the idea of marginal land is really elusive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer 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 definition of "limited" implied that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was frequently illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The truth that ... presently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't mean that nobody is using it [for other purposes] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are key lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, say experts, which ought to be followed when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], however regrettably not of research, and action was taken based on supposed benefits 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 coworkers published a paper mentioning key lessons.
Fundamentally, he describes, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This important requirement for upfront research study might be used to other potential biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for instance, his team released a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel pledge.
Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded 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 considered a substantial and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary information could avoid wasteful monetary speculation and reckless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.
"There are other very appealing trees or plants that could act as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We wished to prevent [them going] in the very same direction of premature hype and fail, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights essential requirements that must be met before moving ahead with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set market should be offered.
"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."
How biofuel lands are acquired is also essential, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities need to guarantee that "standards are put in place to check how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to minimize a few of the issues we observed."
A jatropha return?
Despite all these challenges, some researchers still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel solution - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I think jatropha has some possible, however it needs to be the ideal product, grown in the best 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 manner in which Qatar may decrease airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.
Alherbawi's group is carrying out ongoing field studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can truly improve the soil and farming lands, and safeguard them against any further wear and tear triggered by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar job's success still hinges on many elements, not least the capability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.
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 describes that years of research study and development have actually led to varieties of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade ago.
"We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very 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 byproducts might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal alternative (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 as soon as again reopened with the energy transition drive for oil business and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A total jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be completed, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 aspects - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "We think 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 truly be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends on intricate aspects, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state experts. Then there's the irritating issue of accomplishing high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian government announced its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has actually stirred debate over possible consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep difficulty, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often unfavorable in the majority of the jatropha curcas sites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he discusses.
Other researchers chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain uncertain of the eco-friendly viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it possibly 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. student with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has actually carried out research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega mentions past land-use problems associated with growth of numerous crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not deal with the economic sector doing whatever they want, in terms of developing environmental issues."
Researchers in Mexico are currently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages may be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains worried about potential ecological costs.
He recommends limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in genuinely bad soils in requirement of restoration. "Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are greater than the potential advantages."
Jatropha's international future remains uncertain. And its prospective as a tool in the battle versus climate modification can just be unlocked, say lots of professionals, by avoiding the list of troubles related to its very first boom.
Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry 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).
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