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Earlier this century, jatropha curcas was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree native to Central America, it was hugely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands across 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 nearly all over. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was polluted 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 comeback, they say, depends on splitting the yield problem and dealing with the hazardous land-use issues linked with its initial failure.

The sole staying big jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have actually 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 promising up-and-coming biofuel.


At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree belonging to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its pledge as a sustainable source of biofuel that might 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 focused on growing jatropha curcas remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha return is on.

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

Having found out from the mistakes of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant might yet play an essential function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transport carbon emissions at the international level. A new boom could bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is essential to discover from past mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

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

Miracle shrub, significant bust

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

Back then, jatropha ticked all the boxes, 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 contend with food due to the fact that it is harmful."

Governments, worldwide firms, investors and business bought into the hype, launching efforts 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 research study prepared for WWF.

It didn't take wish for the mirage of the incredible 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 certainly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, an international evaluation noted that "cultivation exceeded both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity as well as an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can flourish 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, just 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 might grow on degraded lands and tolerate drought conditions, as declared, but yields remained bad.

"In my opinion, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and potential 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 afflicted by ecological, social and economic problems, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.

Studies discovered that land-use change for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico discovered the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss varied between 2 and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon debt may never be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon advantages, but the usage of fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you take a look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was positioned on limited land, however the concept of limited land is really evasive," describes 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 found that a lax definition of "marginal" meant 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 fact that ... currently nobody is using [land] for farming does not indicate 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 images."

Learning from jatropha

There are crucial lessons to be found out from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which ought to be followed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], however sadly not of research, and action was taken based upon supposed advantages of jatropha curcas," says Bart Muys, a professor in the Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2014, as the jatropha curcas hype was winding down, Muys and colleagues published a paper citing crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he explains, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for upfront research study could be applied to other prospective biofuel crops, he states. Last year, for instance, his team released a paper analyzing the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel pledge.

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 group concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a significant and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary information might avoid wasteful monetary speculation and negligent land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other really appealing trees or plants that could work as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys says. "We desired to avoid [them going] in the very same direction of early hype and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights vital requirements that must be fulfilled before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set market needs to be readily available.

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

How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise key, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were purchased for production, authorities should ensure that "guidelines are put in place to inspect how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to minimize some of the issues we observed."

A jatropha resurgence?

Despite all these challenges, some researchers still think that under the right conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable 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 best 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 manner in which Qatar may lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is carrying out ongoing field studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can truly boost the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them versus any more degeneration triggered by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar job's success still hinges on lots of aspects, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another important step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that uses the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

Back in Ghana, jOil is presently 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 explains that years of research study and development have led to varieties of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were lacking more than a decade earlier.

"We were able to accelerate the yield cycle, enhance the yield variety and improve the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, 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 taking a look at. The fruit and its byproducts could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (essential 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 actually when again reopened with the energy transition drive for oil business and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A complete jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be finished, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "We think any such expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [allowing] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

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

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

Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often negative in the majority of the jatropha sites, due to the fact that the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he describes.

Other researchers chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay skeptical of the environmental practicality 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," says Daniel Itzamna Avila-Ortega, co-founder of the Mexican Center of Industrial Ecology and a Ph.D. student with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites past land-use issues related to expansion of numerous crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the private sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of creating environmental issues."

Researchers in Mexico are currently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well fit to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he stays worried about prospective environmental expenses.

He suggests limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it just in really bad soils in requirement of remediation. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in very sterilized wastelands," he describes. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing method for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are higher than the possible benefits."

Jatropha's international future remains unsure. And its prospective as a tool in the fight against climate modification can only be opened, state numerous specialists, by preventing the litany of problems associated with its first boom.

Will jatropha tasks 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" and that the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "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 impacts

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