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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree native to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on abject 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 resulted in plantation failures almost all over. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they say, is reliant on breaking the yield problem and dealing with the damaging land-use problems linked with its initial 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 resurgence falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds essential lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple 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 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 concentrated on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha return is on.

"All those business that failed, adopted a plug-and-play design of searching for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you need to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having found out from the mistakes of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a key function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transport at the international level. A new boom could bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are skeptical, noting that jatropha has 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 hampered not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts likewise recommend that jatropha curcas's tale uses lessons for scientists and business owners checking out appealing 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 grasses, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple supposed virtues was an ability to grow 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, says 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 demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food since it is dangerous."

Governments, international companies, investors and companies bought into the hype, introducing efforts to plant, or promise 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 research study prepared for WWF.

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

In 2009, a Buddies of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha's high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a global review noted that "growing surpassed both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity in addition to an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can thrive on minimal 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, just 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to fail as anticipated yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and endure dry spell conditions, as claimed, however yields remained bad.

"In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and potential to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, created a huge problem," resulting in "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise pestered by ecological, social and economic problems, say specialists. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.

Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico found the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss varied between two and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon advantages, however making use of fertilizers led to increases 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 positioned on limited land, but the idea of minimal land is extremely evasive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the nation over numerous years, and found that a lax meaning of "limited" meant 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 fact that ... currently nobody is using [land] for farming does not imply that no one is utilizing it [for other purposes] 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, say analysts, which should be observed when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], but regrettably not of research study, and action was taken based on 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 buzz was unwinding, Muys and associates published a paper citing key lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This important requirement for upfront research might be used to other potential biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for example, his team launched a paper evaluating the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel promise.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on abject and minimal land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data might prevent wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other very appealing trees or plants that might work as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We wished to prevent [them going] in the same instructions of premature hype and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights important requirements that should be satisfied before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields must be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market should be offered.

"Basically, the crop requires to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos states. jatropha curcas "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."

How biofuel lands are gotten is also crucial, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were bought for production, authorities need to ensure that "standards are put in place to check how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to reduce a few of the problems we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these challenges, some researchers still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel service - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some prospective, however it needs to be the ideal material, 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 lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is conducting continuous field research studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can actually enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them versus any more degeneration brought on by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar project's success still hinges on numerous elements, not least the capability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another essential step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that uses the whole of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

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 development have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a years back.

"We were able to quicken the yield cycle, improve the yield range 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 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 replacement (important 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 actually once again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil business 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, however he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 elements - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "We think any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [allowing] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially responsible depends upon complicated factors, consisting of 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 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 nationwide biofuels push that has actually stirred argument over potential consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep trouble, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which ended up being bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently negative in many of the jatropha websites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha curcas can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he describes.

Other scientists chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain 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 perhaps ends up being so successful, 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 actually carried out research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega mentions past land-use issues associated with growth of various crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not cope with the private sector doing whatever they want, in terms of developing environmental problems."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well fit to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about possible environmental expenses.

He recommends restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it only in truly poor soils in need of remediation. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in extremely sterile 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 associated issues are greater than the prospective benefits."

Jatropha's international future stays uncertain. And its potential as a tool in the fight versus environment modification can just be unlocked, say many professionals, by avoiding the litany of difficulties connected with its very first boom.

Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "to team up 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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