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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was wildly 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 all over. 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 pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they state, is reliant on cracking the yield issue and attending to the damaging land-use issues linked with its initial failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have actually 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 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 deteriorated, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields failed.

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

"All those business that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play model of hunting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you need to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having discovered from the errors of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a key function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are hesitant, noting that jatropha has currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution 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 obstructed not just by bad yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts likewise suggest that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs exploring appealing brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from lawns, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple supposed virtues was an ability to prosper on degraded or "marginal" lands; therefore, it was claimed it would never take on 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 appeared amazing; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, too lots of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food since it is poisonous."

Governments, international firms, financiers and companies purchased into the hype, releasing 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 study prepared for WWF.

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

In 2009, a Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global review noted that "cultivation outmatched both scientific understanding of the crop's capacity along with an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can thrive on marginal 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 anticipated yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as claimed, however yields stayed bad.

"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under relatively poorer conditions, developed a really big issue," resulting in "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also afflicted by environmental, social and economic troubles, state specialists. 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 nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon debt might never ever be recovered." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, but making use of fertilizers resulted in boosts 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 minimal land, however the concept of marginal land is really evasive," discusses 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 been lying unblemished and unused was frequently illusory.

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

Learning from jatropha

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

"There was a boom [in investment], however regrettably not of research study, and action was taken based upon alleged benefits of jatropha," states 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 colleagues released a paper pointing out crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for in advance research study could be used to other prospective biofuel crops, he states. Last year, for instance, his team launched a paper analyzing the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel pledge.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and minimal 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 considered a substantial and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge spaces." Use of such cautionary data could avoid wasteful financial speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other extremely promising trees or plants that could act as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys says. "We desired to avoid [them going] in the same instructions of premature buzz and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights vital requirements that must be met before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set market must be readily available.

"Basically, the crop requires to be domesticated, or [clinical understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."

How biofuel lands are gotten is also crucial, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities should guarantee that "guidelines are put in place to inspect how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to decrease a few of the issues we observed."

A jatropha return?

Despite all these challenges, some researchers still think that under the best conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel solution - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some potential, but it requires to be the right product, grown in the ideal 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 reduce airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its usage as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is carrying out continuous field research studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he imagines 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 protect them versus any additional wear and tear caused by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar job's success still hinges on lots of elements, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another important action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that uses the whole 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) dealing with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian discusses that years of research study and development have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade ago.

"We were able to speed up the yield cycle, enhance 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 task 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 (essential in Africa where much wood is still burned for cooking), and even bioplastics.

But it is the transportation sector that still beckons as the perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually as soon as 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 complete jatropha curcas life-cycle evaluation has yet to be completed, however he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "We believe any such growth will happen, [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 model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there's the unpleasant issue of accomplishing high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its intention to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has stirred debate over possible consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep trouble, 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 explains.

Other researchers chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists 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 perhaps becomes so successful, that we will have a lot of associated land-use change," 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 actually carried out research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use problems related to growth of different crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not cope with the private sector doing whatever they desire, in regards to creating 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 matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays concerned about prospective ecological expenses.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in truly poor soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterile wastelands," he describes. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are higher than the potential benefits."

Jatropha's worldwide future remains unsure. And its potential as a tool in the fight versus climate change can only be opened, state numerous professionals, by avoiding the list of troubles connected with its first boom.

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

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