If you liked this story, share it with other individuals.
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 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 caused plantation failures nearly everywhere. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they state, depends on splitting the yield issue and addressing the damaging land-use problems intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds essential lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start 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 broken down, 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 large plantation concentrated on growing jatropha remains 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 design of hunting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the process that was missed out on [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he states the oily plant might yet play an essential role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom could bring extra advantages, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some researchers are hesitant, noting that jatropha has actually already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is necessary to gain from previous mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by poor yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale provides lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs exploring appealing brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, major 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 stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous supposed virtues was an ability to flourish on abject or "limited" lands; thus, it was declared it would never ever take on food crops, so the theory went.
Back then, 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 too much fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food since it is harmful."
Governments, worldwide agencies, financiers and companies bought into the hype, releasing initiatives to plant, or guarantee 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 study got ready for WWF.
It didn't take wish for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.
In 2009, a Buddies of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high needs for land would certainly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global review noted that "cultivation exceeded both clinical understanding of the crop's potential in addition to an understanding of how the crop fits into 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, only 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to fail as anticipated yields declined to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and endure drought conditions, as claimed, but yields remained poor.
"In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and potential to grow under fairly poorer conditions, created a really huge problem," resulting in "ignored yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also plagued by environmental, social and financial difficulties, say experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.
Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation might never ever be recovered." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, however the 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 claim that the jatropha produced was located on minimal land, but the idea of marginal land is really elusive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer 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" indicated that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently nobody is using [land] for farming doesn't indicate that no one is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes 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 ought to be followed when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in financial investment], but sadly 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 buzz was winding down, Muys and coworkers released a paper pointing out crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for in advance research study could be applied to other possible 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 highly variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a substantial and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary information could prevent inefficient financial speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.
"There are other really promising trees or plants that could work as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We desired to avoid [them going] in the same direction of premature buzz and fail, like jatropha."
Gasparatos underlines important requirements that must be satisfied before moving ahead with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set market needs to be available.
"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we know how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."
How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise crucial, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were bought for production, authorities should make sure that "guidelines are put in place to check how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to reduce some of the issues we observed."
A jatropha comeback?
Despite all these challenges, some scientists still think that under the best conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some prospective, however it requires to be the best material, grown in the right location, and so on," Muys stated.
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 may decrease airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its use as a jet fuel could 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 benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can really improve the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them versus any further deterioration triggered by dust storms," he states.
But the Qatar task's success still hinges on many elements, not least the capability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.
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) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian discusses that years of research study and development have actually led to varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade earlier.
"We had the ability to accelerate the yield cycle, enhance the yield variety and enhance the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian says. 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 perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has once again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."
A complete jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be completed, however he thinks 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 a really strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "Our company believe any such expansion will take location, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [allowing] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any country."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends upon intricate elements, including where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say professionals. Then there's the unpleasant issue of accomplishing high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian government announced its intention to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels push that has stirred debate over prospective repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep problem, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna forest, which ended up being problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently negative in most of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he explains.
Other researchers chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay skeptical of the ecological viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially ends up being so successful, that we will have a lot 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 actually performed research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega points out past land-use problems associated with growth of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the private sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of producing ecological problems."
Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains concerned about potential ecological costs.
He recommends restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it only in truly bad soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in extremely sterile wastelands," he describes. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are higher than the prospective benefits."
Jatropha's international future stays unsure. And its prospective as a tool in the fight versus environment modification can only be opened, state lots of experts, by preventing the list of problems connected with its first boom.
Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he says, "to work together 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).
A liquid biofuels primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts
Citations:
Wahl, N., Hildebrandt, T., Moser, C., Lüdeke-Freund, F., Averdunk, K., Bailis, R., ... Zelt, T. (2012 ). Insights into jatropha tasks around the world - Key realities & figures from an international 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 projects: Results from field surveys 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 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 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 method to figure out whether jatropha projects were located in marginal 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 restrictions of promoting brand-new tree crops - Lessons gained from jatropha. 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 battle 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: An extensive 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 suitability 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 schedule of Jatropha curcas L.-based biodiesel advancement. 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.
