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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. An unassuming 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 took place, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields caused plantation failures nearly all over. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was tainted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they say, is dependent on cracking the yield issue and resolving the damaging land-use problems linked with its initial failure.
The sole staying big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have been attained and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
At the start 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 guarantee as a sustainable source of biofuel that could be grown on deteriorated, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields failed.

Now, after years of research and advancement, the sole remaining 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 business that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play design of hunting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need 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 found out from the errors of jatropha's previous failures, he states the oily plant could yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are doubtful, noting 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 gain from previous mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not only by bad yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale provides 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 originated from its pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from lawns, trees and other plants not obtained from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous purported virtues was an ability to thrive on abject or "minimal" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never ever take on food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, 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, a lot of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not contend with food since it is harmful."

Governments, worldwide firms, financiers and companies purchased into the hype, launching 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 research study prepared for WWF.

It didn't take wish for the mirage of the incredible 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 certainly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide evaluation kept in mind that "cultivation outmatched both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity in addition to an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can flourish on limited 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 stop working as expected yields declined to emerge. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and endure dry spell conditions, as declared, however yields stayed bad.

"In my opinion, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and potential to grow under fairly poorer conditions, produced an extremely big problem," resulting in "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise plagued by environmental, social and financial difficulties, say specialists. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural areas were reported.

Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged between two and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon debt may never ever be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon benefits, but the use of fertilizers led to increases 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 positioned on minimal land, but the idea of minimal land is really evasive," discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the country over several years, and discovered that a lax definition of "marginal" implied that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was frequently illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The fact that ... presently nobody is using [land] for farming doesn't indicate that nobody is utilizing it [for other functions] 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 essential lessons to be found out from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which should be followed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], but unfortunately not of research study, and action was taken based upon alleged benefits 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 winding down, Muys and coworkers published a paper citing key lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This essential requirement for upfront research study might be applied to other potential biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for example, his team released a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel guarantee.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and marginal land. But Muys's research 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 data might avoid wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that could function as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We desired to prevent [them going] in the exact same direction of early buzz and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that should be met before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields must be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a prepared market should be available.

"Basically, the crop requires 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 unusual."

How biofuel lands are acquired is also essential, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were acquired for production, authorities need to ensure that "standards are put in location to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to lower a few of the problems we observed."

A jatropha return?

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

"I think jatropha has some potential, however it requires to be the right product, grown in the right location, 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 way that Qatar may reduce airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is carrying out continuous field research studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can really boost the soil and farming lands, and secure them versus any additional degeneration triggered by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar job's success still depends upon many elements, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another essential action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the totality 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) with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian explains that years of research and development have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a years ago.

"We were able to accelerate the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and enhance the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he mentions, 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 looking at. The fruit and its byproducts could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (important in Africa where much wood is still burned for cooking), and even bioplastics.

But it is the transportation sector that still beckons as the perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually once again resumed 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 jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be completed, but he believes 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 prospect for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "Our company believe any such growth will take location, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [allowing] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially accountable depends on complex 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 specialists. Then there's the irritating problem 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 nationwide biofuels press that has actually stirred argument over prospective effects. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep trouble, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which became troublesome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically unfavorable 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 "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay doubtful of the environmental viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps ends up being so successful, that we will have a lot of associated land-use change," 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 actually performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites past land-use issues connected with growth of numerous crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the economic sector doing whatever they want, in terms of developing environmental problems."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages may be well fit to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he stays worried about possible environmental costs.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in truly bad soils in need of repair. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in very sterilized wastelands," he describes. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are higher than the possible advantages."

Jatropha's international future stays unpredictable. And its potential as a tool in the battle against climate modification can only be unlocked, say lots of professionals, by preventing the litany of troubles associated with its 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" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "to collaborate 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 through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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