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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree native to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands throughout 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 led to plantation failures almost all over. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, depends on breaking the yield issue and resolving the hazardous land-use problems linked with its initial failure.

The sole remaining large jatropha plantation remains 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 essential lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.


At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree native to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its pledge 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 study and advancement, the sole remaining big plantation concentrated on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha comeback 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 need to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed out on [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having found out from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he states the oily plant could yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom could bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are doubtful, noting that jatropha has already 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 hindered not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale offers lessons for researchers and business owners exploring appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal originated from its pledge 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 a capability to flourish on abject or "marginal" lands; thus, it was claimed it would never contend with 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 seemed amazing; 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 harmful."

Governments, worldwide firms, financiers and business purchased into the hype, launching initiatives 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 Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha's high demands for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international evaluation noted that "growing outmatched both scientific understanding of the crop's potential as well as an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can grow on limited 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 began to fail as expected yields refused to emerge. Jatropha could grow on abject lands and endure drought conditions, as declared, however yields stayed poor.

"In my opinion, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and potential to grow under fairly poorer conditions, developed a very big problem," resulting in "ignored yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also pestered by ecological, social and financial problems, say experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.

Studies found that land-use modification for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon debt might never ever be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, however using fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you look at most of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was situated on minimal land, however the idea of marginal 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 several years, and found that a lax definition of "minimal" indicated that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was typically illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently no one is utilizing [land] for farming does not mean that nobody is utilizing 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, state experts, which should be hearkened when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], but regrettably not of research, and action was taken based on alleged benefits of jatropha," says Bart Muys, a professor in the Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2014, as the jatropha buzz was winding down, Muys and colleagues released a paper citing crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This crucial requirement for upfront research study could be applied to other potential biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for instance, his group launched a paper evaluating the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel guarantee.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on abject and minimal land. But Muys's research revealed yields to be extremely 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 knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data could avoid inefficient financial speculation and negligent land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that might serve as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We desired to prevent [them going] in the exact same direction of premature buzz and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that should be met before moving ahead with 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 know how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so strange."

How biofuel lands are obtained is also essential, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were bought for production, authorities must make sure that "standards are put in location to examine 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 obstacles, some researchers still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some potential, however it needs to be the right product, grown in the best location, 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 way that Qatar might reduce airline carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its usage as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is carrying out continuous field studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can actually improve the soil and farming lands, and secure them against any additional deterioration brought on by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar project's success still hinges on numerous factors, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another important step, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.

Back in Ghana, jOil is presently 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 led to ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a years ago.

"We were able to accelerate the yield cycle, enhance the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first task 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 might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal alternative (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 shift drive for oil business and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A total jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be completed, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "We believe any such growth will occur, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [enabling] no competition with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends on intricate factors, including 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 irritating problem of attaining high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian government revealed its intention to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has stirred argument over prospective consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically unfavorable in most of the jatropha websites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he describes.

Other researchers chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists stay uncertain of the environmental viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it possibly becomes so successful, 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 performed research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use issues associated with expansion of different crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not handle the personal sector doing whatever they desire, in regards to producing ecological problems."

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays worried about prospective ecological expenses.

He recommends restricting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it just in really poor soils in requirement of repair. "Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in really sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved issues are higher than the prospective advantages."

Jatropha's international future stays unsure. And its potential as a tool in the battle against climate modification can just be opened, say many professionals, by avoiding the litany of difficulties connected with its first boom.

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

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

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