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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" 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 across 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 led to plantation failures almost everywhere. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted 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 return, they say, is reliant on cracking the yield problem and attending to the damaging land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have been accomplished and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this return fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple 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 could be grown on broken down, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields failed.

Now, after years of research study and advancement, the sole remaining large plantation concentrated on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on.

"All those companies that stopped working, embraced a plug-and-play design of searching for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.

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

But some scientists are hesitant, noting that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is important to discover from past mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts likewise recommend that jatropha's tale offers lessons for researchers and business owners exploring appealing brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from grasses, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several purported virtues was a capability to flourish on abject or "marginal" lands; thus, it was declared it would never ever contend with food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, 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 incredible; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too numerous pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food since it is dangerous."

Governments, worldwide firms, financiers and business purchased into the buzz, introducing 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 research study got ready 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) alerted that jatropha's high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a global review noted that "cultivation outpaced 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 flourish on limited lands."

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 fail as anticipated yields declined to emerge. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and tolerate drought conditions, as claimed, however yields stayed poor.

"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under relatively poorer conditions, developed a very big problem," 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 found that land-use change for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico discovered the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon debt might never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon advantages, however making use of fertilizers resulted in 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 located on limited land, but the concept of limited land is very elusive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the nation over a number of years, and discovered that a lax definition of "limited" implied that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was frequently illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently no one is using [land] for farming doesn't suggest 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 crucial lessons to be learned from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which should be observed when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], however sadly not of research study, and action was taken based on alleged advantages of jatropha," says Bart Muys, a teacher 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 associates released a paper pointing out crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This crucial requirement for in advance research study could be used to other potential biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for example, his group launched a paper analyzing the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel guarantee.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and limited land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a substantial and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary information might prevent inefficient monetary speculation and negligent land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other very promising trees or plants that could work as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We wished to avoid [them going] in the exact same instructions of early buzz and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights essential requirements that must be met before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market must be available.

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

How biofuel lands are acquired is also crucial, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were purchased for production, authorities need to ensure that "guidelines are put in place to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to lower a few of the problems we observed."

A jatropha return?

Despite all these obstacles, some researchers still believe that under the right conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel service - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think jatropha has some possible, however it requires to be the right product, grown in the ideal 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 jatropha. He sees it as a manner in which Qatar may lower airline carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is carrying out ongoing field studies to improve jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can actually improve the soil and farming lands, and protect them against any further deterioration triggered by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar job's success still depends upon numerous aspects, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another essential action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the whole 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) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian explains that years of research and advancement have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a years earlier.

"We had the ability to accelerate the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first project 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 might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal alternative (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 once again reopened with the energy transition drive for oil business and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A complete jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be finished, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he states. "Our company believe any such expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [allowing] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends upon complex factors, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say specialists. Then there's the nagging problem of accomplishing 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 stirred debate over potential repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep trouble, having been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which ended up being bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently unfavorable 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 "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically 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 possibly ends up being so successful, that we will have a lot 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 adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega mentions previous land-use issues associated with expansion of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the personal sector doing whatever they want, in regards to creating ecological problems."

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains worried about potential environmental expenses.

He suggests limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in truly bad soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in very sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are greater than the potential advantages."

jatropha curcas's global future stays uncertain. And its prospective as a tool in the fight versus climate change can just be unlocked, say numerous specialists, by avoiding the litany of troubles connected 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" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "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 through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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

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