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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 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 caused plantation failures nearly all over. The consequences of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they state, depends on cracking the yield problem and dealing with the harmful land-use issues linked with its original failure.
The sole remaining large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have been accomplished and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds important lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple 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 might 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 development, the sole remaining large plantation concentrated 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 scouting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you need to domesticate it. This belongs of the process that was missed out on [during 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 might yet play a crucial role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A new boom could bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are doubtful, keeping in mind that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach full capacity, then it is vital to learn from past errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by poor yields, however by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

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

Miracle shrub, significant bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from lawns, trees and other plants not derived from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous supposed virtues was an ability to thrive on abject or "minimal" lands; thus, it was claimed it would never ever complete 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 excessive fertilizer, too numerous pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food since it is harmful."

Governments, worldwide firms, investors and business bought into the buzz, launching initiatives to plant, or guarantee 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 research study got ready for WWF.

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

In 2009, a Buddies of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha's high needs for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "growing outpaced both scientific 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 prosper 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 stop working as expected yields declined to emerge. Jatropha could grow on abject lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as declared, however yields stayed poor.

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

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also pestered by ecological, social and economic problems, say professionals. 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 countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha curcas plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation may never be recovered." In India, production showed carbon benefits, however making use of fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was situated on marginal land, but the concept of limited land is extremely elusive," discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the country over a number of years, and discovered that a lax meaning of "marginal" suggested that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was often illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... presently nobody is using [land] for farming doesn't indicate that nobody is using it [for other functions] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite images."

Learning from jatropha

There are key lessons to be found out from the experience with jatropha curcas, state analysts, which should be followed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], however regrettably not of research, and action was taken based upon alleged advantages of jatropha," states Bart Muys, a professor in the Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2014, as the jatropha curcas buzz was winding down, Muys and colleagues published a paper mentioning key lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This important requirement for in advance research study might be used to other potential biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for instance, his group launched a paper examining 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 minimal land. But Muys's research study showed 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 information could avoid wasteful financial speculation and negligent land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that could act as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We wished to avoid [them going] in the same instructions of early hype and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines essential requirements that must be fulfilled before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market must 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 almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."

How biofuel lands are gotten is also crucial, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were purchased for production, authorities must make sure that "standards are put in location to inspect how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to minimize a few of the issues we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

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

"I believe jatropha has some possible, but it needs to be the right material, grown in the right location, and so on," Muys stated.

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 way that Qatar might decrease airline carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its usage as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is carrying out continuous field research studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can really improve the soil and agricultural lands, and secure them versus any more wear and tear triggered by dust storms," he says.

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

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 describes that years of research and advancement have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a decade earlier.

"We were able to speed up the yield cycle, improve the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he mentions, 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 looking at. The fruit and its byproducts might 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 transport sector that still beckons as the perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has as soon as 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 complete jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be completed, 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 ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he states. "We believe any such expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [permitting] no competition with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially accountable depends on complicated aspects, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state professionals. Then there's the nagging problem of accomplishing 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 dispute over possible consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which ended up being troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often negative in many of the jatropha websites, due to the fact that the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he discusses.

Other scientists chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain skeptical of the environmental viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially ends up being so successful, that we will have a lot 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 actually conducted research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega mentions previous land-use problems connected with expansion of different 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 regards to producing ecological issues."

Researchers in Mexico are currently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about prospective environmental expenses.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in genuinely bad soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha might be one of those plants that can grow in extremely sterile wastelands," he describes. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are higher than the prospective advantages."

Jatropha's global future stays uncertain. And its prospective as a tool in the battle against environment change can just be unlocked, say numerous specialists, by avoiding the litany of difficulties related to its first boom.

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

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