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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was hugely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on abject lands throughout 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 led to plantation failures almost everywhere. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they state, is dependent on cracking the yield problem and attending to the harmful land-use issues intertwined with its original failure.
The sole staying big 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 important lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree native to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its promise 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 development, the sole remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha resurgence is on.

"All those business that stopped working, embraced a plug-and-play design of hunting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure 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 past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play an essential role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom might bring extra benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are hesitant, keeping in mind that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach full capacity, then it is vital to learn from past mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not just by poor yields, however by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and business owners 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 grasses, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple purported virtues was a capability to flourish on degraded or "limited" lands; hence, it was declared it would never ever compete 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 appeared incredible; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is toxic."

Governments, worldwide firms, financiers and business bought into the hype, introducing initiatives to plant, or guarantee 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 research study got ready for WWF.

It didn't take wish 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 demands for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, an international review noted that "growing surpassed 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 thrive 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, just 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to stop working as anticipated yields declined to materialize. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and endure drought conditions, as claimed, but yields remained poor.

"In my opinion, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under fairly poorer conditions, created a really huge issue," resulting in "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise pestered by environmental, social and financial troubles, state 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 countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation may never be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, however the usage 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 positioned on limited land, however the idea of minimal land is really evasive," 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 discovered that a lax definition of "marginal" suggested that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was frequently illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... presently no one is using [land] for farming does not imply that no one is using it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you might not necessarily see from satellite images."

Learning from jatropha

There are key lessons to be discovered from the experience with jatropha, say experts, which should be heeded when considering other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], but unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based upon alleged advantages of jatropha," states 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 unwinding, Muys and colleagues released a paper pointing out crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This crucial requirement for upfront research might be used to other possible biofuel crops, he states. Last year, for instance, his team released a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel promise.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on abject and minimal land. But Muys's research showed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding gaps." Use of such cautionary information might prevent wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other very promising trees or plants that might act as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys says. "We desired to avoid [them going] in the exact same direction of early hype and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines important requirements that should be satisfied before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and an all set market needs to be readily available.

"Basically, the crop requires to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos says. jatropha curcas "was practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so odd."

How biofuel lands are gotten is likewise essential, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were purchased for production, authorities need to guarantee that "standards are put in location to inspect how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to reduce some of the issues we observed."

A jatropha return?

Despite all these difficulties, some researchers still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel service - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think jatropha has some potential, however it needs to be the ideal material, grown in the ideal location, 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 minimize airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is performing ongoing field studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can truly boost the soil and farming lands, and secure them against any more degeneration triggered by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar job's success still hinges on numerous factors, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another crucial step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production technology that uses the whole 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) dealing with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian discusses that years of research and development have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a decade back.

"We were able to accelerate the yield cycle, enhance the yield variety and enhance the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very 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 by-products might 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 when again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil business and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A total assessment has yet to be completed, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 aspects - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "We believe any such growth will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [enabling] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends upon intricate factors, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there's the unpleasant issue of accomplishing high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian government announced its intent to pursue jatropha curcas plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels push that has actually stirred debate over possible effects. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep problem, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which ended up being troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often unfavorable in many of the jatropha sites, because 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 ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists remain 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 successful, that we will have a lot of associated land-use modification," says 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 carried out research on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use problems associated with growth of various crops, including 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 issues."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages may be well fit to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains worried about potential environmental expenses.

He suggests limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it only in really poor soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in extremely 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 associated issues are higher than the prospective benefits."

Jatropha's worldwide future stays unpredictable. And its prospective as a tool in the fight versus environment modification can just be opened, say lots of experts, by avoiding the litany of problems connected with its first boom.

Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian thinks its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "to team up 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 through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

A liquid biofuels guide: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts

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