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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 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 everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some scientists continue pursuing the incredibly elusive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they state, depends on splitting the yield problem and addressing the hazardous land-use issues linked with its initial failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated ranges have been attained and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple shrub-like tree native 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 study and development, the sole staying large 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 hunting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to commercialize 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 found out from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he states the oily plant could yet play a as a liquid biofuel feedstock, decreasing transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom could bring additional benefits, with jatropha likewise a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are hesitant, noting that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is necessary to discover from previous mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not only by bad yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale uses lessons for scientists and business owners 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 pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from grasses, trees and other plants not derived from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several purported virtues was a capability to prosper on degraded or "minimal" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never ever complete with food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, jatropha ticked all packages, 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, too numerous pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food because it is poisonous."

Governments, international firms, investors and companies purchased into the buzz, introducing efforts to plant, or pledge 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 prepared for WWF.

It didn't take wish for the mirage of the amazing 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 certainly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "cultivation outmatched both clinical understanding of the crop's potential along with an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can thrive 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 fail as expected yields declined to emerge. Jatropha could grow on abject lands and tolerate drought conditions, as claimed, however yields remained poor.

"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under relatively poorer conditions, produced an extremely huge problem," leading to "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise plagued by environmental, social and financial troubles, 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 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 associated forest loss varied in between two and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation might never be recovered." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, but using fertilizers led to 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 positioned on limited land, however the concept of minimal land is very elusive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the country over numerous years, and discovered that a lax meaning of "limited" implied 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 fact that ... presently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't mean that nobody 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 imagery."

Learning from jatropha

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

"There was a boom [in financial investment], but unfortunately not of research study, and action was taken based upon alleged advantages 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 hype was winding down, Muys and associates released a paper citing essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This important requirement for in advance research study might be used to other possible biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for instance, his group released a paper evaluating the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel promise.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and minimal land. But Muys's research showed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a substantial and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data could prevent inefficient monetary speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.

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

Gasparatos underlines vital requirements that must be satisfied before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields must be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a ready market must 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 "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."

How biofuel lands are acquired is likewise key, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities need to make sure that "guidelines are put in location to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to reduce some of the problems we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these challenges, some researchers still believe that under the right conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel option - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some potential, however it needs to be the best product, grown in the right 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 reduce airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its usage 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 boost 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 really improve the soil and farming lands, and protect them against any additional wear and tear triggered by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar job's success still hinges on lots of elements, not least the capability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.

Back in Ghana, jOil is currently 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 discusses that years of research and advancement have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a years back.

"We were able to quicken the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and enhance the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he states, 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 could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal substitute (crucial in Africa where much wood is still burned for cooking), and even bioplastics.

But it is the transportation 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 search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A total jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be finished, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 elements - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "We think any such growth will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially accountable depends upon intricate elements, including where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there's the irritating issue of accomplishing high yields.

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

Many past plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which ended up being troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically unfavorable in the majority of the jatropha sites, since 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 ecological viability 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 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 performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega mentions previous land-use problems associated with expansion of various crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of creating environmental problems."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages may be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he stays concerned about potential ecological costs.

He suggests limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in really poor soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterilized wastelands," he discusses. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery method for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are greater than the potential benefits."

Jatropha's global future remains uncertain. And its possible as a tool in the battle against climate change can just be unlocked, 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 again? Subramanian believes its role as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he states, "to work together with us to establish 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 impacts

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