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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree native to Central America, it was wildly promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on degraded 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 nearly everywhere. The consequences of the jatropha crash was polluted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they state, is reliant on cracking the yield problem and attending to the hazardous land-use issues linked with its initial failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have been achieved and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this resurgence fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds essential lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple shrub-like tree native to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its pledge as a sustainable source of biofuel that might be grown on degraded, 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 remaining big 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, adopted a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having gained from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transportation carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom could bring additional advantages, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are doubtful, keeping in mind that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is vital to gain from past errors. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not just by bad yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

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

Miracle shrub, significant 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 obtained from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple purported virtues was an ability to thrive on abject or "limited" lands; thus, it was claimed it would never 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 excessive fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not compete with food since it is harmful."

Governments, international agencies, investors and companies bought into the hype, releasing initiatives 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 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 dispute with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "cultivation outmatched 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 minimal 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 anticipated yields declined to emerge. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and endure dry spell conditions, as declared, but yields remained bad.

"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and potential to grow under fairly poorer conditions, produced a huge problem," resulting in "undervalued 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 financial difficulties, say experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural areas 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 research study from Mexico discovered the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon debt may never be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, however the usage of fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was located on marginal land, however the concept of limited land is extremely evasive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the country over numerous years, and found that a lax definition of "minimal" implied that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was typically illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The truth that ... currently no one is using [land] for farming does not suggest 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 key lessons to be found out from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which must be hearkened when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], however unfortunately not of research, 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 winding down, Muys and colleagues released a paper pointing out crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This important requirement for upfront research study might be used to other prospective biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for instance, his team released a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel guarantee.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and marginal 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 substantial and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary information could prevent inefficient monetary speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that might work as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys says. "We wished to avoid [them going] in the exact same instructions of early hype and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights essential requirements that should be met before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields must be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set 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 states. Jatropha "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd."

How biofuel lands are gotten is also essential, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were acquired for production, authorities should ensure that "standards are put in place to inspect how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to minimize a few of the problems we observed."

A jatropha resurgence?

Despite all these difficulties, some scientists still think that under the right conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel option - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think jatropha has some potential, but it requires to be the right product, grown in the right 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 way that Qatar might decrease airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel might result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is conducting ongoing field research studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can actually improve the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them against any more deterioration triggered by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar project's success still hinges on numerous aspects, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another essential step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the entirety 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 led to ranges of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were lacking more than a decade back.

"We had the ability to speed up the yield cycle, enhance the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first job 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 by-products might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal substitute (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 ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually when again reopened 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 evaluation has yet to be completed, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "Our company believe any such expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [enabling] no competition with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

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

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has stirred argument over prospective repercussions. 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, transformed dry savanna forest, which ended up being bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently negative in most of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he discusses.

Other researchers chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain uncertain of the ecological practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps becomes so effective, that we will have a lot of associated land-use modification," 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 performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

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

Researchers in Mexico are currently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well suited to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains concerned about possible environmental costs.

He suggests limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it just in really poor soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterilized 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 global future stays uncertain. And its prospective as a tool in the battle versus climate change can just be opened, state lots of experts, by preventing the list of difficulties associated with its very first boom.

Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he says, "to collaborate 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 guide: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world effects

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