GitLab

If you liked this story, share it with other individuals.

Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on abject lands throughout 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 led to plantation failures almost everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was polluted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some scientists continue pursuing the incredibly elusive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they say, depends on cracking the yield issue and addressing the hazardous land-use concerns linked with its initial failure.
The sole remaining large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have been accomplished and a brand-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 native to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its guarantee 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 failed.

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

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

Having gained from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a crucial role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transport carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom could bring additional benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are skeptical, noting that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach full capacity, then it is important to learn from past mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by bad yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

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

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its guarantee as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from lawns, trees and other plants not from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple supposed virtues was an ability to prosper on abject or "minimal" lands; therefore, it was claimed it would never compete with food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, jatropha ticked all packages, states 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 need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not compete with food due to the fact that it is toxic."

Governments, global companies, financiers and business purchased into the buzz, launching initiatives to plant, or promise 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 known at the time as Swaziland) warned that jatropha's high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review kept in mind that "cultivation surpassed 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 flourish 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 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 viewpoint, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and potential to grow under fairly poorer conditions, produced a huge problem," resulting in "ignored yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also plagued by ecological, social and financial troubles, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural locations were reported.

Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico found the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation might never be recovered." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, however the usage of fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you look at most of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was located on limited land, but the idea of marginal land is really evasive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the nation over a number of years, and found that a lax meaning of "minimal" meant that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was often illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The fact that ... currently no one is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't indicate that nobody is using it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite images."

Learning from jatropha

There are essential lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which ought to be hearkened when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], but sadly not of research study, and action was taken based on supposed 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 buzz was winding down, Muys and coworkers released a paper mentioning key lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This vital requirement for in advance research might be used to other prospective biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for example, his group released 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 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 considerable and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary data might avoid inefficient financial speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that might function as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We wanted to avoid [them going] in the very same direction of early buzz and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights essential requirements that need to be satisfied before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and an all set market must be offered.

"Basically, the crop needs 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 odd."

How biofuel lands are gotten is also key, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were purchased for production, authorities need to ensure that "standards are put in place to examine how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to reduce some of the issues we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these difficulties, some researchers still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some possible, however it requires to be the best material, 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 method that Qatar might reduce airline company carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its use as a jet fuel might result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is conducting ongoing field research studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can actually improve the soil and farming lands, and protect them versus any more wear and tear triggered by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar task's success still depends upon many elements, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another crucial step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the whole of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.

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

"We had the ability to accelerate the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and enhance the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. "Our first project is to broaden our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."

Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is looking at. The fruit and its by-products 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 ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually once again reopened with the energy transition drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A total jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be finished, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 aspects - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "We believe any such expansion will take place, [by clarifying] the definition of abject land, [allowing] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially responsible 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 professionals. Then there's the nagging issue of attaining high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government announced its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has stirred dispute over prospective repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep trouble, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which ended up being problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often unfavorable in most of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he explains.

Other researchers chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay doubtful of the environmental practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially becomes so successful, that we will have a great deal of associated land-use modification," 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 carried out research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

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

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well suited to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about potential environmental costs.

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

Jatropha's global future stays unpredictable. And its prospective as a tool in the fight versus climate modification can just be opened, say many professionals, by preventing the list of problems connected with its very first boom.

Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" and that the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "to team up 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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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

Citations:

Wahl, N., Hildebrandt, T., Moser, C., Lüdeke-Freund, F., Averdunk, K., Bailis, R., ... Zelt, T. (2012 ). Insights into jatropha tasks around the world - Key facts & figures from an international study. Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. doi:10.2139/ ssrn.2254823

Romijn, H., Heijnen, S., Colthoff, J. R., De Jong, B., & Van Eijck, J. (2014 ). Economic and social sustainability efficiency of jatropha tasks: Arise from field studies in Mozambique, Tanzania and Mali. Sustainability, 6( 9 ), 6203-6235. doi:10.3390/ su6096203

Trebbin, A. (2021 ). Land getting and jatropha in India: An analysis of 'hyped' discourse on the topic. Land, 10( 10 ), 1063. doi:10.3390/ land10101063

Van Eijck, J., Romijn, H., Balkema, A., & Faaij, A. (2014 ). Global experience with jatropha cultivation for bioenergy: An evaluation of socio-economic and environmental elements. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 32, 869-889. doi:10.1016/ j.rser.2014.01.028

Skutsch, M., De los Rios, E., Solis, S., Riegelhaupt, E., Hinojosa, D., Gerfert, S., ... Masera, O. (2011 ). Jatropha in Mexico: ecological and social effects of an incipient biofuel program. Ecology and Society, 16( 4 ). doi:10.5751/ ES-04448-160411

Gmünder, S., Singh, R., Pfister, S., Adheloya, A., & Zah, R. (2012 ). Environmental effects of Jatropha curcas biodiesel in India. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, 2012. doi:10.1155/ 2012/623070

Ahmed, A., Jarzebski, M. P., & Gasparatos, A. (2018 ). Using the ecosystem service method to identify whether jatropha tasks were found in limited lands in Ghana: Implications for site choice. Biomass and Bioenergy, 114, 112-124. doi:10.1016/ j.biombioe.2017.07.020

Achten, W. M., Sharma, N., Muys, B., Mathijs, E., & Vantomme, P. (2014 ). Opportunities and restraints of promoting new tree crops - Lessons gained from jatropha. Sustainability, 6( 6 ), 3213-3231. doi:10.3390/ su6063213

Alherbawi, M., McKay, G., Govindan, R., Haji, M., & Al-Ansari, T. (2022 ). A novel approach on the delineation of a multipurpose energy-greenbelt to produce biofuel and fight desertification in deserts. Journal of Environmental Management, 323, 116223. doi:10.1016/ j.jenvman.2022.116223

Riayatsyah, T. M. I., Sebayang, A. H., Silitonga, A. S., Padli, Y., Fattah, I. M. R., Kusumo, F., ... Mahlia, T. M. I. (2022 ). Current development of Jatropha curcas commoditisation as biodiesel feedstock: A comprehensive evaluation. Frontiers in Energy Research, 9, 1019. doi:10.3389/ fenrg.2021.815416

Mokhtar, E. S., Akhir, N. M., Zaki, N. A. M., Muharam, F. M., Pradhan, B., & Lay, U. S. (2021 ). Land suitability for potential jatropha plantation in Malaysia. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 620( 1 ), 012002. doi:10.1088/ 1755-1315/620/ 1/012002

Chamola, R., Kumar, N., & Jain, S. (2022 ). Jatropha: A sustainable source of transportation fuel in India. In Advancement in Materials, Manufacturing and Energy Engineering, Vol. II: Select Proceedings of ICAMME 2021 (pp. 395-408). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. doi:10.1007/ 978-981-16-8341-1_32

Peralta, H., Avila-Ortega, D. I., & García-Flores, J. C. (2022 ). Jatropha farm: A circular economy proposal for the non-toxic physic nut crop in Mexico. Environmental Sciences Proceedings, 15( 1 ), 10. doi:10.3390/ environsciproc2022015010

Hao, M., Qian, Y., Xie, X., Chen, S., Ding, F., & Ma, T. (2022 ). Global minimal land accessibility of Jatropha curcas L.-based biodiesel advancement. Journal of Cleaner Production, 364, 132655. doi:10.1016/ j.jclepro.2022.132655

FEEDBACK: Use this kind to send out a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public remark, you can do that at the bottom of the page.