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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant that could grow on degraded lands throughout 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 almost everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, depends on cracking the yield problem and attending to the damaging land-use concerns linked with its original failure.
The sole staying big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been achieved and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, 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, an unassuming 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 failed.

Now, after years of research study and development, the sole remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on.

"All those companies that stopped working, embraced a plug-and-play model of searching for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.

Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play an essential function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are hesitant, keeping in mind that jatropha has actually already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is essential to discover from past mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by poor yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale offers lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs checking out appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its guarantee as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from yards, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple supposed virtues was a capability to thrive on abject or "marginal" lands; thus, it was declared it would never contend with 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 appeared amazing; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too many 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 poisonous."

Governments, global companies, investors and companies purchased into the buzz, introducing efforts 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 research study prepared for WWF.

It didn't take long for the mirage of the incredible 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 demands for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global review kept in mind that "growing outmatched both clinical 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 thrive 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, just 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations began to stop working as anticipated yields declined to materialize. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and tolerate drought conditions, as declared, but yields remained poor.

"In my opinion, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and possible to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, produced a very huge problem," resulting in "ignored yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise afflicted by environmental, social and financial difficulties, 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 countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon debt may never be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, however using fertilizers resulted in boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you take a look at most of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was located on minimal land, but the idea of marginal land is very evasive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the country over numerous years, and discovered that a lax definition of "minimal" indicated that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was frequently illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently no one is using [land] for farming does not mean that nobody is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a great deal 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 learned from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which must be observed when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], but sadly not of research study, 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 associates published a paper pointing out essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for upfront research study could be applied to other possible biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, 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 degraded and marginal land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a considerable and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary data could avoid wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other really promising trees or plants that might work as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We wished to prevent [them going] in the same instructions of early buzz and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights vital requirements that must be met before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a ready 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 strange."

How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise key, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities should ensure that "guidelines are put in location to check how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to reduce some of the issues we observed."

A jatropha return?

Despite all these obstacles, some scientists still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel service - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some potential, however it requires to be the best material, grown in the right place, and so on," Muys said.

Mohammad Alherbawi, a postdoctoral research fellow at Qatar's Hamad Bin Khalifa University, continues holding out hope for jatropha. He sees it as a manner in which Qatar may lower airline carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its usage as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

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

But the Qatar job's success still hinges on numerous elements, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

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) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian describes that years of research study and development have actually resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a years ago.

"We were able to hasten the yield cycle, enhance the yield variety and enhance 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 looking at. The fruit and its byproducts could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal substitute (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 ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has once 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 complete 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 two aspects - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he states. "We believe any such growth will occur, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [allowing] no competition with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially accountable depends upon complicated aspects, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say specialists. Then there's the unpleasant problem of achieving high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels push that has actually stirred debate over possible effects. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep problem, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which became bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently unfavorable in the majority of the jatropha sites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he explains.

Other scientists chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists stay doubtful of the eco-friendly practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it possibly ends up being so successful, that we will have a great deal of associated land-use change," 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 performed research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use issues associated with expansion of various crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not deal with the private sector doing whatever they desire, in regards to developing environmental problems."

Researchers in Mexico are presently 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 potential ecological costs.

He recommends limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it only in really poor soils in requirement of remediation. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in really sterile wastelands," he describes. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery method for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are greater than the prospective advantages."

Jatropha's international future remains unsure. And its prospective as a tool in the battle against climate change can only be unlocked, say many professionals, by preventing the list of problems related to its first boom.

Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he states, "to collaborate 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 through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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

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