If you liked this story, share it with other individuals.

Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" 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 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 caused plantation failures almost 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 return, they say, is reliant on cracking the yield problem and addressing the damaging land-use problems intertwined with its original failure.
The sole staying big jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been achieved and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds important lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start 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 pledge 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 fell flat.

Now, after years of research study and advancement, the sole staying big plantation concentrated on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha resurgence is on.

"All those companies that failed, embraced a plug-and-play design of hunting 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 [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.

Having discovered from the errors of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant could yet play an essential role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transport carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom could bring additional benefits, with jatropha also a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are hesitant, keeping in mind that jatropha has 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 past errors. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale offers lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs checking out promising brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal originated from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from yards, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous purported virtues was an ability to thrive on abject or "limited" lands; therefore, it was claimed it would never ever take on food crops, so the theory went.

Back then, jatropha ticked all packages, states Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that seemed incredible; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too numerous pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not contend with food due to the fact that it is toxic."

Governments, global firms, investors and business purchased into the hype, launching 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 got ready for WWF.

It didn't take wish for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) warned that jatropha's high demands for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international review noted that "growing 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 prosper 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 stop working as anticipated yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and endure dry spell conditions, as claimed, but yields remained bad.

"In my opinion, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and possible to grow under relatively poorer conditions, developed a huge issue," leading to "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise plagued by ecological, social and financial difficulties, state specialists. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural areas were reported.

Studies discovered that land-use modification for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A 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 scenarios, the carbon financial obligation might never ever be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, however making use of fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was situated on marginal land, however the idea of minimal land is extremely elusive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the country over several years, and discovered that a lax meaning of "marginal" suggested that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying unblemished and unused was frequently illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently no one is using [land] for farming doesn't imply that no one is using it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you might not always see from satellite imagery."

Learning from jatropha

There are essential lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which must be heeded when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], however unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based on supposed 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 buzz was unwinding, Muys and colleagues released a paper pointing out essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This vital requirement for upfront research could be applied to other possible 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 types" with biofuel pledge.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on abject and limited land. But Muys's research revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a substantial and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary data could avoid inefficient financial speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other very promising trees or plants that could work as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We desired to prevent [them going] in the same direction of early buzz and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines important requirements that must be satisfied before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields must be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a prepared market should be readily 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 virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."

How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise crucial, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities must guarantee that "standards are put in location to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to lower a few of the issues we observed."

A jatropha resurgence?

Despite all these difficulties, some scientists still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel solution - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some potential, however it requires to be the ideal product, grown in the right 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 method that Qatar may decrease airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel might result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is carrying out continuous field studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can really boost the soil and agricultural lands, and secure them versus any more deterioration brought on by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar task's success still depends upon numerous elements, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another essential step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the whole 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 describes that years of research study and advancement have actually led to ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a years ago.

"We were able to hasten the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. "Our first job is to expand 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 substitute (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 resumed with the energy transition 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 finished, but he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he states. "Our company believe any such growth will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning 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 genuinely be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially responsible depends on complex elements, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there's the bothersome problem of attaining high yields.

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

Many previous plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which ended up being problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently unfavorable in many of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he explains.

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 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 great deal of associated land-use modification," states 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 actually carried out research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega mentions previous land-use issues connected 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 regards to producing environmental problems."

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well fit to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains concerned about possible ecological costs.

He recommends limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in genuinely poor soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery method for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are greater than the prospective benefits."

Jatropha's worldwide future remains unpredictable. And its potential as a tool in the fight versus environment modification can just be opened, state many experts, by avoiding the litany of troubles associated with its very first boom.

Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he states, "to work together 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 via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

A liquid biofuels guide: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world effects

Citations:

Wahl, N., Hildebrandt, T., Moser, C., Lüdeke-Freund, F., Averdunk, K., Bailis, R., ... Zelt, T. (2012 ). Insights into jatropha projects worldwide - Key realities & figures from a global study. Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. doi:10.2139/ ssrn.2254823

Romijn, H., Heijnen, S., Colthoff, J. R., De Jong, B., & Van Eijck, J. (2014 ). Economic and social sustainability performance of jatropha jobs: Results from field studies in Mozambique, Tanzania and Mali. Sustainability, 6( 9 ), 6203-6235. doi:10.3390/ su6096203

Trebbin, A. (2021 ). Land grabbing and jatropha in India: An analysis of 'hyped' discourse on the topic. Land, 10( 10 ), 1063. doi:10.3390/ land10101063

Van Eijck, J., Romijn, H., Balkema, A., & Faaij, A. (2014 ). Global experience with for bioenergy: An evaluation of socio-economic and environmental aspects. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 32, 869-889. doi:10.1016/ j.rser.2014.01.028

Skutsch, M., De los Rios, E., Solis, S., Riegelhaupt, E., Hinojosa, D., Gerfert, S., ... Masera, O. (2011 ). Jatropha in Mexico: ecological and social impacts of an incipient biofuel program. Ecology and Society, 16( 4 ). doi:10.5751/ ES-04448-160411

Gmünder, S., Singh, R., Pfister, S., Adheloya, A., & Zah, R. (2012 ). Environmental impacts of Jatropha curcas biodiesel in India. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, 2012. doi:10.1155/ 2012/623070

Ahmed, A., Jarzebski, M. P., & Gasparatos, A. (2018 ). Using the environment service method to figure out whether jatropha jobs were found in limited lands in Ghana: Implications for site selection. Biomass and Bioenergy, 114, 112-124. doi:10.1016/ j.biombioe.2017.07.020

Achten, W. M., Sharma, N., Muys, B., Mathijs, E., & Vantomme, P. (2014 ). Opportunities and restrictions of promoting new tree crops - Lessons gained from jatropha. Sustainability, 6( 6 ), 3213-3231. doi:10.3390/ su6063213

Alherbawi, M., McKay, G., Govindan, R., Haji, M., & Al-Ansari, T. (2022 ). A novel method on the delineation of a multipurpose energy-greenbelt to produce biofuel and battle desertification in deserts. Journal of Environmental Management, 323, 116223. doi:10.1016/ j.jenvman.2022.116223

Riayatsyah, T. M. I., Sebayang, A. H., Silitonga, A. S., Padli, Y., Fattah, I. M. R., Kusumo, F., ... Mahlia, T. M. I. (2022 ). Current progress of Jatropha curcas commoditisation as biodiesel feedstock: A comprehensive evaluation. Frontiers in Energy Research, 9, 1019. doi:10.3389/ fenrg.2021.815416

Mokhtar, E. S., Akhir, N. M., Zaki, N. A. M., Muharam, F. M., Pradhan, B., & Lay, U. S. (2021 ). Land viability for potential jatropha plantation in Malaysia. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 620( 1 ), 012002. doi:10.1088/ 1755-1315/620/ 1/012002

Chamola, R., Kumar, N., & Jain, S. (2022 ). Jatropha: A sustainable source of transportation fuel in India. In Advancement in Materials, Manufacturing and Energy Engineering, Vol. II: Select Proceedings of ICAMME 2021 (pp. 395-408). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. doi:10.1007/ 978-981-16-8341-1_32

Peralta, H., Avila-Ortega, D. I., & García-Flores, J. C. (2022 ). Jatropha farm: A circular economy proposition for the non-toxic physic nut crop in Mexico. Environmental Sciences Proceedings, 15( 1 ), 10. doi:10.3390/ environsciproc2022015010

Hao, M., Qian, Y., Xie, X., Chen, S., Ding, F., & Ma, T. (2022 ). Global minimal land schedule of Jatropha curcas L.-based biodiesel development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 364, 132655. doi:10.1016/ j.jclepro.2022.132655

FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you desire to publish a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.