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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" 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 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 caused plantation failures almost all over. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they say, is dependent on splitting the yield issue and resolving the damaging land-use issues linked with its initial failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have been accomplished and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, the world's experience of jatropha curcas holds important lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the beginning 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 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 study and development, the sole staying large plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on.

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

Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he states the oily plant might yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the worldwide 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 already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach full capacity, then it is necessary to gain from past errors. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs exploring promising new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its pledge 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 flourish on abject or "limited" lands; thus, it was claimed it would never ever 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 amazing; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too lots of pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food because it is harmful."

Governments, international companies, financiers and companies purchased into the buzz, introducing efforts 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 got ready for WWF.

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

In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha's high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review noted that "cultivation outmatched both clinical understanding of the crop's potential in addition to an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can grow on minimal 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 started to stop working as anticipated yields declined to materialize. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and endure dry spell conditions, as claimed, however yields remained bad.

"In my opinion, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under fairly poorer conditions, developed a really huge issue," leading to "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 economic problems, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.

Studies discovered that land-use change for jatropha in countries 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 2 and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon financial obligation may never be recovered." In India, production showed carbon advantages, but making use of fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was situated on minimal land, however the idea of minimal land is very 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 discovered that a lax meaning of "marginal" meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was typically illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... presently no one is using [land] for farming doesn't imply that no one is using it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite images."

Learning from jatropha

There are essential lessons to be learned from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which need to be observed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], however 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 unwinding, Muys and coworkers published a paper mentioning crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This essential requirement for in advance research study could be applied to other possible biofuel crops, he states. Last year, for instance, his group released a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel promise.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and marginal land. But Muys's research revealed 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 continuing knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary information could prevent wasteful financial speculation and negligent land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other very promising trees or plants that might serve as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We desired to prevent [them going] in the exact same direction of premature hype and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights important requirements that must be fulfilled before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields must be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and an all set market needs to 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 practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd."

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

A jatropha resurgence?

Despite all these challenges, some researchers still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha curcas could be a valuable biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "responsible for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some prospective, however it requires to be the best material, grown in the best place, and so on," Muys said.

Mohammad Alherbawi, a postdoctoral research study fellow at Qatar's Hamad Bin Khalifa University, continues holding out hope for . He sees it as a manner in which Qatar may lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its usage as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is conducting continuous field research studies to increase 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 application of the green belt can actually enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them against any further degeneration brought on by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar project's success still depends upon lots of elements, not least the capability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another essential action, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.

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 actually led to ranges of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were doing not have more than a years ago.

"We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and enhance the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. "Our 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 by-products could 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 transportation sector that still beckons as the ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually once again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A total jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be completed, but he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 elements - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "We think any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [allowing] 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, environment-friendly and socially accountable depends upon intricate factors, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say professionals. Then there's the unpleasant problem of attaining high yields.

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

Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically negative in the majority of the jatropha websites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he explains.

Other scientists chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay 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 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 carried out research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use issues associated with growth of numerous crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not manage the economic sector doing whatever they want, in terms of producing ecological issues."

Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well suited to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains concerned about possible environmental costs.

He recommends restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in genuinely bad soils in need of repair. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in extremely sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved issues are higher than the possible advantages."

Jatropha's international future stays unsure. And its potential as a tool in the fight versus environment change can only be unlocked, state numerous specialists, by preventing the list of difficulties connected with its very first boom.

Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he states, "to team up with us to establish and expand 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

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