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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was hugely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia.
A jatropha rush occurred, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields resulted in 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 scientists continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they state, depends on splitting the yield issue and dealing with the hazardous land-use concerns linked with its original failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated ranges have been accomplished and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds essential lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree belonging to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its pledge 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 fell flat.

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

"All those companies that failed, adopted a plug-and-play model of searching for the wild ranges of jatropha curcas. But to commercialize it, you require to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed out on [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant might yet play a key function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transport carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom could bring extra benefits, with jatropha also a prospective 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 caution that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is important to discover from previous mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha curcas plantations were obstructed not just by poor yields, however by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts likewise recommend that jatropha's tale offers lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs checking out appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, significant bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from yards, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple purported virtues was an ability to thrive on degraded or "limited" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never take on 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 appeared incredible; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not compete with food because it is toxic."

Governments, international firms, financiers and business bought into the buzz, launching initiatives to plant, or guarantee to plant, millions of 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 incredible biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) warned that jatropha's high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international review noted that "cultivation outmatched both scientific 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 prosper 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, just 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to stop working as expected yields refused to materialize. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as declared, however yields stayed poor.

"In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under relatively poorer conditions, created a really big issue," leading to "undervalued 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 financial troubles, say experts. 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 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 ranged in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon debt might never be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon benefits, however using fertilizers resulted in boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you take a look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was positioned on marginal land, however the concept of minimal land is extremely evasive," discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the country over a number of years, and found that a lax definition of "marginal" meant that presumptions 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 ... currently nobody is using [land] for farming does not imply that nobody is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite imagery."

Learning from jatropha

There are crucial lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which must be hearkened when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], but regrettably not of research, 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 unwinding, Muys and colleagues published a paper pointing out crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he explains, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for upfront research could be used to other possible biofuel crops, he states. Last year, for instance, his group launched a paper examining 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 marginal 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 significant and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data might avoid inefficient financial speculation and reckless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other very promising trees or plants that could work as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We desired to prevent [them going] in the same direction of early buzz and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines important requirements that must be fulfilled before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a prepared market needs to be readily available.

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

How biofuel lands are acquired is likewise essential, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were bought for production, authorities must guarantee that "standards are put in location to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to reduce a few of the issues we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these obstacles, some researchers still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel solution - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some prospective, however it needs to be the best product, grown in the right location, 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 method that Qatar might lower airline company 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 conducting ongoing field studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can truly enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them against any additional wear and tear brought on by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar task's success still depends upon many aspects, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production technology that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

Back in Ghana, jOil is currently managing 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 describes that years of research study and advancement have actually resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were lacking more than a decade earlier.

"We had the ability to speed up the yield cycle, improve the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very 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 byproducts might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (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 perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has once again resumed 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 assessment has yet to be finished, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "Our company believe any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [enabling] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially accountable depends on complex aspects, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state experts. Then there's the unpleasant problem of attaining high yields.

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

Many past plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often negative in most of the jatropha sites, because 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 researchers stay uncertain of the eco-friendly 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 effective, that we will have a great deal 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 conducted research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out past land-use problems related to growth of different crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not deal with 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-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages may be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains worried about prospective environmental expenses.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it just in really poor soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha might be one of those plants that can grow in really sterile 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 involved issues are greater than the prospective benefits."

Jatropha's global future stays uncertain. And its potential as a tool in the battle against climate change can just be unlocked, say lots of professionals, by preventing the litany of problems connected with its very first boom.

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

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

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