Jatropha: the Biofuel that Bombed Seeks a Course To Redemption

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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a „miracle” biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree belonging 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 plantation failures almost all over. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, depends on cracking the yield problem and resolving the harmful land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.

The sole staying large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims 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 holds crucial lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming 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 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 big plantation focused on growing jatropha 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 ranges of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the process 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 past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transport carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom might bring extra benefits, with jatropha also a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are doubtful, 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 gain from past errors. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by bad yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts also suggest that jatropha’s tale uses lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs exploring appealing 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 yards, trees and other plants not derived from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several purported virtues was a capability to flourish on abject or „minimal” lands; thus, it was it would never ever compete with food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, jatropha ticked all packages, states Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Future Initiatives. „We had a crop that appeared miraculous; 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 contend with food because it is dangerous.”

Governments, international companies, investors and business 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 research study prepared for WWF.

It didn’t take long for the mirage of the incredible biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha’s high demands for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international review noted that „cultivation outmatched both clinical understanding of the crop’s potential as well as 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 began to fail as anticipated yields refused to materialize. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and endure dry spell conditions, as declared, however yields stayed poor.

„In my opinion, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under relatively poorer conditions, created an extremely huge issue,” leading to „ignored yields that were going to be produced,” Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also pestered by ecological, social and economic problems, state professionals. 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 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 between 2 and 14 years, and „in some scenarios, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recovered.” In India, production revealed carbon benefits, however using fertilizers led to increases of soil and water „acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication.”

„If you look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was located on minimal land, however the concept of limited land is really elusive,” describes Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker 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 reality that … presently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming doesn’t indicate that nobody is utilizing it [for other functions] 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 key lessons to be found out from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which must be observed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

„There was a boom [in financial investment], however regrettably not of research, and action was taken based on alleged 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 released a paper citing essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This essential requirement for in advance research could be applied to other prospective biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for example, his team released a paper evaluating 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 team concluded that „pongamia still can not be thought about a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge gaps.” Use of such cautionary data could avoid wasteful financial speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

„There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that could act as a fuel or a biomass producer,” Muys states. „We wished to avoid [them going] in the same instructions of early buzz and stop working, like jatropha.”

Gasparatos highlights vital requirements that should be fulfilled before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a prepared market must 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 almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd.”

How biofuel lands are gotten is likewise crucial, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities should make sure that „guidelines are put in place to inspect how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to lower a few of the issues we observed.”

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these challenges, some scientists still think that under the best conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel solution – particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector „responsible for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.”

„I think jatropha has some prospective, however it needs to be the best product, grown in the right place, 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 might lower airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its use as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% reduction of „cradle to grave” emissions.

Alherbawi’s team is conducting ongoing field studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. „The implementation of the green belt can really enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and secure them versus any further deterioration triggered by dust storms,” he states.

But the Qatar project’s success still hinges on numerous factors, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another essential step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production innovation that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.

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 discusses that years of research study and advancement have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a decade ago.

„We had the ability to quicken the yield cycle, improve the yield range and enhance the fruit-bearing capability of the tree,” Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. „Our first task is to broaden 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 (important 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 once again resumed 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 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 2 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 definition of degraded land, [permitting] no competition 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 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 specialists. Then there’s the nagging problem of accomplishing high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed 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 problem, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many past plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which ended up being troublesome for carbon accounting. „The net carbon was frequently unfavorable in most 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 scientists chronicle the „capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock” in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists remain doubtful of the eco-friendly viability of second-generation biofuels. „If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps ends up being so successful, 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 actually conducted research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use issues associated with growth of numerous crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: „Our police is so weak that it can not deal with the economic sector doing whatever they want, in regards to creating environmental problems.”

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he stays concerned about potential ecological costs.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a „crop that dominates land,” growing it only in really bad soils in requirement of restoration. „Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in very sterilized wastelands,” he explains. „That’s the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico – as part of a forest recovery technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are higher than the possible benefits.”

Jatropha’s global future remains unpredictable. And its prospective as a tool in the fight versus climate change can just be opened, state numerous professionals, by preventing the list of problems associated with its first boom.

Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is „imminent” which the resurgence is on. „We have strong interest from the energy industry now,” he states, „to collaborate with us to develop and broaden 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).

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