If you liked this story, share it with other individuals.
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 might grow on abject lands throughout 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 resulted in plantation failures nearly everywhere. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was polluted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, is reliant on splitting the yield problem and dealing with the hazardous land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have been accomplished and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback fails, 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 belonging to Central America, was planted across 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 fell flat.
Now, after years of research and advancement, the sole remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha comeback is on.
"All those business that stopped working, embraced a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant might yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transport carbon emissions at the global level. A new boom could bring extra benefits, with jatropha likewise a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some researchers are doubtful, noting that jatropha has currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is essential to gain from previous mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.
Experts likewise recommend that jatropha's tale uses lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs checking out appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, significant bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its guarantee 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 numerous supposed virtues was a capability to flourish on degraded or "minimal" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never take on food crops, so the theory went.
Back then, jatropha ticked all packages, states Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that seemed incredible; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too lots of pesticides, or excessive demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food due to the fact that it is toxic."
Governments, worldwide companies, financiers and business purchased into the buzz, launching efforts to plant, or promise 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 prepared for WWF.
It didn't take long for the mirage of the incredible biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high demands 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 capacity in addition to an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can grow on marginal 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 expected yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as declared, but yields stayed bad.
"In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, created a very huge issue," leading to "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also pestered by environmental, social and economic troubles, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural locations were reported.
Studies found that land-use modification for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss varied between two and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon debt may never be recovered." In India, production showed carbon benefits, however making use of fertilizers resulted in increases 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 marginal land, but the idea of marginal land is extremely evasive," describes 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 found that a lax meaning of "limited" meant that assumptions 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 ... currently no one is using [land] for farming does not mean that no one is using it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you might not necessarily see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are crucial lessons to be discovered from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which need to be observed when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], however regrettably not of research study, and action was taken based upon supposed 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 hype was unwinding, Muys and colleagues released a paper mentioning crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This vital requirement for in advance research might be used to other possible biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for instance, his team launched 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 abject and marginal land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a considerable and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary information might prevent wasteful financial speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.
"There are other very promising trees or plants that could serve as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We wished to avoid [them going] in the very same direction of premature buzz and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos underlines important requirements that need to be satisfied before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market must be offered.
"Basically, the crop requires to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we know how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."
How biofuel lands are acquired is also key, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were bought for production, authorities should ensure that "standards are put in location to check how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to decrease some of the issues we observed."
A jatropha return?
Despite all these obstacles, some researchers still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha curcas might be an important biofuel service - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I think jatropha has some possible, however it requires to be the ideal 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 might minimize airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel might result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.
Alherbawi's team is carrying out ongoing field research studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he envisages 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 farming lands, and secure them against any more degeneration triggered by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar project's success still depends upon lots of aspects, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the whole of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.
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 describes that years of research and advancement have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade ago.
"We were able to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he mentions, 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 taking a look 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 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 look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A complete jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be finished, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 aspects - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "We think any such expansion will take place, [by clarifying] the definition of abject land, [enabling] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any nation."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially accountable depends on complex aspects, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state experts. Then there's the irritating issue 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 national biofuels push that has stirred argument over potential repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently 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 describes.
Other researchers chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain skeptical of the eco-friendly viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it possibly becomes so successful, that we will have a great deal of associated land-use modification," says Daniel Itzamna Avila-Ortega, co-founder of the Mexican Center of Industrial Ecology and a Ph.D. student with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega cites past land-use issues related to expansion of numerous crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not manage the personal sector doing whatever they want, in terms of producing ecological problems."
Researchers in Mexico are currently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about prospective environmental expenses.
He recommends limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in genuinely poor soils in requirement of repair. "Jatropha might be one of those plants that can grow in really sterilized wastelands," he describes. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved issues are greater than the possible benefits."
Jatropha's global future stays unsure. And its possible as a tool in the battle against climate change can just be opened, say many professionals, by avoiding the litany of troubles connected with its first boom.
Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "to work together 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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
A liquid biofuels guide: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world effects
Citations:
Wahl, N., Hildebrandt, T., Moser, C., Lüdeke-Freund, F., Averdunk, K., Bailis, R., ... Zelt, T. (2012 ). Insights into jatropha tasks worldwide - Key truths & figures from a worldwide study. Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. doi:10.2139/ ssrn.2254823
Romijn, H., Heijnen, S., Colthoff, J. R., De Jong, B., & Van Eijck, J. (2014 ). Economic and social sustainability efficiency of jatropha tasks: Arise from field studies in Mozambique, Tanzania and Mali. Sustainability, 6( 9 ), 6203-6235. doi:10.3390/ su6096203
Trebbin, A. (2021 ). Land grabbing and jatropha in India: An analysis of 'hyped' discourse on the subject. Land, 10( 10 ), 1063. doi:10.3390/ land10101063
Van Eijck, J., Romijn, H., Balkema, A., & Faaij, A. (2014 ). Global experience with jatropha growing for bioenergy: An evaluation of socio-economic and ecological elements. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 32, 869-889. doi:10.1016/ j.rser.2014.01.028
Skutsch, M., De los Rios, E., Solis, S., Riegelhaupt, E., Hinojosa, D., Gerfert, S., ... Masera, O. (2011 ). Jatropha in Mexico: environmental and social effects of an incipient biofuel program. Ecology and Society, 16( 4 ). doi:10.5751/ ES-04448-160411
Gmünder, S., Singh, R., Pfister, S., Adheloya, A., & Zah, R. (2012 ). Environmental effects of Jatropha curcas biodiesel in India. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, 2012. doi:10.1155/ 2012/623070
Ahmed, A., Jarzebski, M. P., & Gasparatos, A. (2018 ). Using the ecosystem service approach to figure out whether jatropha projects were located in marginal lands in Ghana: Implications for site selection. Biomass and Bioenergy, 114, 112-124. doi:10.1016/ j.biombioe.2017.07.020
Achten, W. M., Sharma, N., Muys, B., Mathijs, E., & Vantomme, P. (2014 ). Opportunities and restraints of promoting new tree crops - Lessons found out from jatropha. Sustainability, 6( 6 ), 3213-3231. doi:10.3390/ su6063213
Alherbawi, M., McKay, G., Govindan, R., Haji, M., & Al-Ansari, T. (2022 ). An unique technique on the delineation of a multipurpose energy-greenbelt to produce biofuel and combat desertification in deserts. Journal of Environmental Management, 323, 116223. doi:10.1016/ j.jenvman.2022.116223
Riayatsyah, T. M. I., Sebayang, A. H., Silitonga, A. S., Padli, Y., Fattah, I. M. R., Kusumo, F., ... Mahlia, T. M. I. (2022 ). Current development of Jatropha curcas commoditisation as biodiesel feedstock: A thorough review. Frontiers in Energy Research, 9, 1019. doi:10.3389/ fenrg.2021.815416
Mokhtar, E. S., Akhir, N. M., Zaki, N. A. M., Muharam, F. M., Pradhan, B., & Lay, U. S. (2021 ). Land viability for possible jatropha plantation in Malaysia. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 620( 1 ), 012002. doi:10.1088/ 1755-1315/620/ 1/012002
Chamola, R., Kumar, N., & Jain, S. (2022 ). Jatropha: A sustainable source of transportation fuel in India. In Advancement in Materials, Manufacturing and Energy Engineering, Vol. II: Select Proceedings of ICAMME 2021 (pp. 395-408). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. doi:10.1007/ 978-981-16-8341-1_32
Peralta, H., Avila-Ortega, D. I., & García-Flores, J. C. (2022 ). Jatropha farm: A circular economy proposal for the non-toxic physic nut crop in Mexico. Environmental Sciences Proceedings, 15( 1 ), 10. doi:10.3390/ environsciproc2022015010
Hao, M., Qian, Y., Xie, X., Chen, S., Ding, F., & Ma, T. (2022 ). Global limited land accessibility of Jatropha curcas L.-based biodiesel development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 364, 132655. doi:10.1016/ j.jclepro.2022.132655
FEEDBACK: Use this kind to send out a message to the author of this post. If you wish to publish a public remark, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
