Jatropha: the Biofuel that Bombed Seeks a Path 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 could grow on abject lands across 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 resulted in plantation failures nearly everywhere. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.

Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they say, is dependent on splitting the yield issue and attending to the hazardous land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.

The sole staying large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, 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 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 deteriorated, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields fell flat.

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

“All those business that failed, embraced a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the process that was missed out on [during the boom],” jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.

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

But some researchers are hesitant, noting that jatropha has currently 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 previous mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts also suggest that jatropha’s tale offers lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs checking out promising new sources for liquid biofuels – which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha’s early 21st-century appeal came 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 several supposed virtues was a capability to grow on degraded or “marginal” lands; therefore, it was declared it would never take on 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 seemed incredible; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, too many pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is toxic.”

Governments, global agencies, investors and business purchased into the buzz, introducing initiatives to plant, or pledge 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 research study prepared for WWF.

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

In 2009, a Buddies of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) warned that jatropha’s high needs for land would certainly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global review kept in mind that “cultivation exceeded both clinical 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 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, just 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to stop working as expected yields declined to materialize. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and tolerate drought conditions, as declared, however yields stayed poor.

“In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under relatively poorer conditions, developed a really big problem,” leading to “undervalued yields that were going to be produced,” Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise afflicted by ecological, social and economic problems, 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 countries 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 varied between 2 and 14 years, and “in some situations, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recovered.” In India, production revealed carbon benefits, however using fertilizers resulted in 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 situated on limited land, but the idea of marginal land is very elusive,” describes Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the nation over numerous years, and found that a lax definition of “minimal” meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying unblemished and unused was typically illusory.

“Marginal to whom?” he asks. “The fact that … presently nobody is using [land] for farming doesn’t indicate that no one is utilizing it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite imagery.”

Learning from jatropha

There are essential lessons to be learned from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which must be hearkened when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

“There was a boom [in financial investment], but sadly not of research, and action was taken based upon alleged advantages 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 buzz was winding down, Muys and coworkers released a paper citing crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he explains, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for upfront research could be used 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 types” with biofuel guarantee.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and limited land. But Muys’s research study showed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that “pongamia still can not be thought about a significant and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge spaces.” Use of such cautionary information might avoid wasteful monetary speculation and negligent land conversion for new biofuels.

“There are other really promising trees or plants that could function as a fuel or a biomass producer,” Muys states. “We wanted to avoid [them going] in the very same direction of premature hype and fail, like jatropha.”

Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that should be met before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a prepared market should be offered.

“Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown,” Gasparatos says. Jatropha “was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird.”

How biofuel lands are acquired is likewise key, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were bought for production, authorities must ensure that “guidelines are put in place to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to lower some of the problems we observed.”

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these difficulties, some researchers still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel service – especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector “responsible for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.”

“I believe jatropha has some potential, however it requires to be the ideal material, 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 lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% decrease of “cradle to grave” emissions.

Alherbawi’s team is conducting ongoing field research studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. “The execution of the green belt can truly improve the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them versus any additional wear and tear triggered by dust storms,” he says.

But the Qatar task’s success still depends upon lots of elements, not least the capability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

Back in Ghana, jOil is presently 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 resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were lacking more than a decade ago.

“We were able to hasten the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree,” Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. “Our 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 byproducts might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (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 perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. “The biofuels story has actually once 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 assessment has yet to be completed, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected to the oily plant will be “competitive … These 2 aspects – that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration – makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for … sustainable aviation,” he states. “Our company believe any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any country.”

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends on complicated factors, consisting of where and how it’s grown – whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say specialists. Then there’s the unpleasant issue of accomplishing high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has stirred argument over possible repercussions. The Gran Chaco’s dry forest biome is currently in deep difficulty, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which ended up being troublesome for carbon accounting. “The net carbon was often negative in the majority of the jatropha websites, due to the fact that the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree,” he explains.

Other researchers chronicle the “capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock” in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay uncertain of the eco-friendly 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 effective, that we will have a great deal of associated land-use modification,” 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 performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega mentions past land-use issues connected with growth of numerous crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: “Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not handle the private sector doing whatever they want, in terms of producing environmental problems.”

Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well fit to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains concerned about potential environmental expenses.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a “crop that dominates land,” growing it just in truly bad soils in requirement of restoration. “Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterile wastelands,” he discusses. “That’s the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico – as part of a forest healing method for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are greater than the possible advantages.”

Jatropha’s global future stays unpredictable. And its potential as a tool in the fight versus environment modification can just be unlocked, say numerous professionals, by avoiding the litany of problems connected with its very first boom.

Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is “imminent” and that the return is on. “We have strong interest from the energy industry now,” he states, “to work together 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).

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