Jatropha: the Biofuel that Bombed Seeks a Course To Redemption

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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a “miracle” biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native 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 all over. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the incredibly elusive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they state, is reliant on breaking the yield problem and addressing the hazardous land-use problems intertwined with its original failure.

The sole staying big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, the world’s experience of jatropha holds essential lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.

At the start of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree native to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its promise 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 remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha return is on.

“All those companies that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play design of searching 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 discovered from the mistakes of jatropha’s past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play an essential function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transport carbon emissions at the international level. A new boom might bring additional advantages, with jatropha also a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are skeptical, 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 vital to discover from past mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not only by poor yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts likewise suggest that jatropha’s tale uses lessons for researchers and business owners exploring appealing new sources for liquid biofuels – which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha’s early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its guarantee as a “second-generation” biofuel, which are sourced from lawns, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple supposed virtues was an ability to flourish on abject or “marginal” lands; thus, it was claimed 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 incredible; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too lots of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is dangerous.”

Governments, global agencies, investors and business bought into the hype, releasing initiatives 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 study prepared for WWF.

It didn’t take long 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 demands for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review kept in mind that “growing surpassed both scientific understanding of the crop’s potential along with an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can thrive on minimal lands.”

Projections approximated 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 stop working as anticipated yields refused to materialize. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and endure dry spell conditions, as claimed, but yields stayed bad.

“In my opinion, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and possible to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, produced a huge issue,” resulting in “underestimated yields that were going to be produced,” Gasparatos says.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise afflicted by environmental, social and economic problems, state professionals. 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 nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered the “carbon repayment” of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss varied between 2 and 14 years, and “in some scenarios, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recuperated.” In India, production revealed carbon benefits, however using fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water “acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication.”

“If you take a look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was situated on minimal 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 numerous years, and discovered that a lax meaning of “marginal” implied that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was frequently illusory.

“Marginal to whom?” he asks. “The reality that … currently no one is using [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 necessarily see from satellite images.”

Learning from jatropha

There are essential lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which ought to be followed when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

“There was a boom [in 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 hype was winding down, Muys and colleagues published a paper citing crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This essential requirement for upfront research study might be used to other possible biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for instance, his group released a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a “fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types” with biofuel guarantee.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and minimal 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 considered a considerable and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing understanding spaces.” Use of such cautionary information might avoid wasteful financial speculation and negligent land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

“There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that could work as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer,” Muys states. “We desired to avoid [them going] in the exact same instructions of premature hype and fail, like jatropha.”

Gasparatos underlines vital requirements that need to be satisfied before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a prepared market should be readily available.

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

How biofuel lands are gotten is likewise crucial, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were bought for production, authorities should guarantee that “guidelines are put in location to check how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to reduce a few of the problems we observed.”

A jatropha resurgence?

Despite all these obstacles, some researchers still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel service – especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector “responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.”

“I believe jatropha has some possible, but it requires to be the ideal product, grown in the ideal place, 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 might minimize airline carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% decrease of “cradle to tomb” emissions.

Alherbawi’s team is conducting ongoing field studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he imagines a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. “The application of the green belt can actually boost the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them versus any further deterioration caused by dust storms,” he says.

But the Qatar job’s success still depends upon lots of aspects, not least the ability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another essential action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.

Back in Ghana, jOil is presently 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 discusses that years of research and development have actually led to varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a decade ago.

“We were able to accelerate the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and improve the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree,” Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. “Our first project 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 could 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 once again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil business 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 associated with the oily plant will be “competitive … These 2 aspects – that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration – makes it an extremely strong prospect for adoption for … sustainable aviation,” he states. “Our company believe any such expansion will take place, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [allowing] no competition with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any country.”

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially responsible depends upon complex elements, including where and how it’s grown – whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there’s the unpleasant problem of accomplishing high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian government announced its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has stirred argument over prospective repercussions. The Gran Chaco’s dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which became bothersome for carbon accounting. “The net carbon was often unfavorable in many of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree,” he discusses.

Other researchers chronicle the “capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock” in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain uncertain of the ecological practicality of second-generation biofuels. “If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps 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 conducted research on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use problems 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 desire, in regards to creating ecological issues.”

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

He recommends limiting expansion in Mexico to make it a “crop that conquers land,” growing it just in really bad soils in need of remediation. “Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in very sterile wastelands,” he discusses. “That’s the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico – as part of a forest recovery strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are greater than the potential advantages.”

Jatropha’s global future stays unpredictable. And its prospective as a tool in the fight versus environment modification can just be opened, say lots of professionals, by preventing the litany of difficulties related to its first boom.

Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is “impending” and that the comeback is on. “We have strong interest from the energy market now,” he states, “to team up 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 through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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

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