Jatropha: the Biofuel that Bombed Seeks a Path To Redemption

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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a “wonder” biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded 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 resulted in plantation failures almost all over. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they state, is dependent on splitting the yield problem and attending to the harmful land-use problems intertwined with its original failure.

The sole staying large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback fails, the world’s experience of essential lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple shrub-like tree belonging to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its guarantee 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 study and advancement, the sole remaining large plantation concentrated on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha comeback is on.

“All those companies that failed, adopted a plug-and-play design of scouting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed out on [throughout the boom],” jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.

Having discovered from the mistakes of jatropha’s previous failures, he states the oily plant could yet play an essential role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom might bring additional benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has actually already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach full capacity, then it is vital to find out from past mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts also recommend that jatropha’s tale provides lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs exploring appealing brand-new sources for liquid biofuels – which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha’s early 21st-century appeal came from its guarantee 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 purported virtues was an ability to grow on degraded or “limited” lands; thus, it was declared it would never contend with food crops, so the theory went.

Back then, 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 amazing; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, too numerous pesticides, or too much 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, international agencies, investors and companies bought into the hype, releasing efforts 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 wish for the mirage of the amazing 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 indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation 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 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 might grow on abject lands and tolerate drought conditions, as declared, but yields stayed bad.

“In my opinion, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and possible to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, developed 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 likewise pestered by ecological, social and economic troubles, state 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 caused a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the “carbon repayment” of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss varied between two and 14 years, and “in some situations, the carbon debt might never ever be recuperated.” In India, production revealed carbon benefits, but making use of fertilizers led to boosts 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 limited land, however the idea of limited land is very evasive,” explains 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 found that a lax meaning 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 truth that … currently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming does not suggest that no one is using it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite imagery.”

Learning from jatropha

There are key lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which must be observed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

“There was a boom [in investment], however regrettably not of research, and action was taken based on supposed 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 hype was unwinding, Muys and coworkers published a paper citing key lessons.

Fundamentally, he explains, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This crucial requirement for in advance research might be used to other potential biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for instance, his team released a paper analyzing the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a “fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types” with biofuel pledge.

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 group concluded that “pongamia still can not be considered a considerable and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing understanding spaces.” Use of such cautionary information could prevent wasteful financial speculation and negligent land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

“There are other very promising trees or plants that might act as a fuel or a biomass producer,” Muys states. “We desired to avoid [them going] in the very same direction of premature buzz and stop working, like jatropha.”

Gasparatos underlines important requirements that must be satisfied before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market should be readily available.

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

How biofuel lands are acquired is likewise essential, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were acquired for production, authorities must make sure that “standards are put in location to examine how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to lower some of the issues we observed.”

A jatropha resurgence?

Despite all these obstacles, some scientists still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel option – particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector “accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.”

“I believe jatropha has some possible, however it needs to be the best product, grown in the best 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 method that Qatar might reduce airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its usage as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% decrease of “cradle to tomb” emissions.

Alherbawi’s team is carrying out ongoing field studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. “The execution of the green belt can really enhance the soil and farming lands, and secure them versus any more wear and tear caused by dust storms,” he says.

But the Qatar project’s success still depends upon numerous factors, not least the ability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another crucial step, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production technology that uses the totality 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 describes 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 years ago.

“We had the ability to quicken the yield cycle, improve the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree,” Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. “Our first task is to expand our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares.”

Biofuels aren’t the only application JOil is taking a look at. The fruit and its byproducts could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (crucial 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 when 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 assessment 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 elements – that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration – makes it a very strong candidate for adoption for … sustainable air travel,” he says. “Our company believe any such growth will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [allowing] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any country.”

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially responsible depends on complicated aspects, including where and how it’s grown – whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state professionals. Then there’s the irritating issue of achieving high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels push that has actually stirred debate 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 past plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. “The net carbon was often negative in the majority of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree,” he discusses.

Other scientists chronicle the “potential of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock” in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain doubtful of the environmental practicality of second-generation biofuels. “If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps becomes so successful, that we will have a great deal 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 actually conducted research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega mentions past land-use problems associated with growth of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: “Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not handle the personal sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of producing ecological problems.”

Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains concerned about potential environmental costs.

He suggests restricting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a “crop that dominates land,” growing it only in really poor soils in requirement of remediation. “Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in really sterilized wastelands,” he explains. “That’s the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico – as part of a forest recovery method for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved issues are higher than the prospective advantages.”

Jatropha’s international future stays unsure. And its prospective as a tool in the fight versus climate modification can only be opened, state lots of professionals, by preventing the litany of troubles related to 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 “impending” which the resurgence is on. “We have strong interest from the energy industry now,” he says, “to collaborate with us to establish 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).

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