If you liked this story, share it with other people.
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 ensued, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields resulted in plantation failures almost everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they state, is reliant on cracking the yield issue and attending to the harmful land-use problems intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have been achieved and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, a simple shrub-like tree belonging to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its pledge as a sustainable source of biofuel that could be grown on degraded, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields failed.
Now, after years of research 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 resurgence is on.
"All those companies that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play model of hunting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.
Having discovered from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant might yet play an essential function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transportation carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some researchers are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is vital to discover from past errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale uses lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs exploring appealing 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 grasses, trees and other plants not obtained from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several supposed virtues was a capability to thrive on degraded or "limited" lands; thus, it was claimed it would never compete with food crops, so the theory went.
At that time, jatropha ticked all the boxes, 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 excessive fertilizer, too numerous pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is harmful."
Governments, worldwide agencies, financiers and business purchased into the buzz, introducing 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 wish for the mirage of the miraculous 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 demands for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review kept in mind that "cultivation outmatched 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 fail as expected yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and endure dry spell conditions, as declared, however yields stayed bad.
"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and possible to grow under fairly poorer conditions, developed a huge problem," leading to "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also plagued by ecological, social and economic problems, state professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning 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 research study from Mexico found the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between two and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon financial obligation might never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon benefits, but making use of fertilizers led to increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you take a look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was situated on marginal land, but the idea of limited 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 numerous years, and found that a lax definition of "minimal" meant that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha curcas plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The truth that ... presently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't imply that no one is utilizing it [for other purposes] There are a great deal of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are essential lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, say experts, which need to be hearkened when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], however unfortunately not of research, 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 published a paper pointing out crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he explains, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This vital requirement for in advance research study could be applied to other potential biofuel crops, he says. 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 minimal land. But Muys's research revealed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a considerable and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data might prevent wasteful financial speculation and reckless land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other very appealing trees or plants that could function as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We wished to avoid [them going] in the same instructions of premature hype and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that should be satisfied before continuing with brand-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 [clinical understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd."
How biofuel lands are acquired is likewise essential, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were purchased for production, authorities need to ensure that "standards are put in location to inspect how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to lower a few of the problems we observed."
A jatropha comeback?
Despite all these challenges, some researchers still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel solution - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I think jatropha has some possible, however it requires to be the best product, grown in the best 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 decrease airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.
Alherbawi's team is carrying out continuous field studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can really boost the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them versus any more deterioration 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 essential action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that uses the whole of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.
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 development have actually led to varieties of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were lacking more than a years back.
"We were able to hasten the yield cycle, enhance the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first project is to expand our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."
Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is looking at. The fruit and its byproducts could 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 transport sector that still beckons as the ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has once again reopened with the energy transition drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A total jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be finished, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to 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 growth will occur, [by clarifying] the definition of abject 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, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends upon intricate aspects, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state professionals. Then there's the irritating issue of accomplishing high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian government announced its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has actually stirred argument over possible effects. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep trouble, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which ended up being bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often unfavorable 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 scientists chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists remain skeptical of the ecological practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially becomes so effective, 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 performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use issues related to growth of different crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not manage the economic sector doing whatever they want, in regards to developing ecological issues."
Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, 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 bad soils in requirement of remediation. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in very sterilized wastelands," he discusses. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are higher than the possible advantages."
Jatropha's international future stays uncertain. And its possible as a tool in the fight against environment modification can just be opened, say lots of experts, by preventing the litany of troubles related to its very first boom.
Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" and that the resurgence is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he says, "to work together 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 primer: 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 projects worldwide - Key truths & figures from a global 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 performance of jatropha tasks: Results from field studies in Mozambique, Tanzania and Mali. Sustainability, 6( 9 ), 6203-6235. doi:10.3390/ su6096203
Trebbin, A. (2021 ). Land getting and jatropha in India: An analysis of 'hyped' discourse on the topic. 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 environmental 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 impacts 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 impacts 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 environment service approach to determine whether jatropha jobs were located in minimal lands in Ghana: Implications for website choice. 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 constraints of promoting brand-new tree crops - Lessons found out from jatropha curcas. Sustainability, 6( 6 ), 3213-3231. doi:10.3390/ su6063213
Alherbawi, M., McKay, G., Govindan, R., Haji, M., & Al-Ansari, T. (2022 ). A novel approach on the delineation of a multipurpose energy-greenbelt to produce biofuel and fight desertification in arid areas. 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 comprehensive evaluation. 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 transport 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 proposition 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 form 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.
