If you liked this story, share it with other individuals.
Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands across 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 nearly everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they say, is dependent on breaking the yield problem and resolving the damaging land-use issues intertwined with its original failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha curcas 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 comeback 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 native to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its pledge 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 advancement, the sole remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha resurgence is on.
"All those companies that failed, embraced a plug-and-play model of searching for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This is a part of the process that was missed out on [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transport carbon emissions at the global level. A new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective 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 vital to find out from previous mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not just by bad yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social issues in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs checking out appealing brand-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 lawns, 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 grow on abject or "limited" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never take on food crops, so the theory went.
At that time, jatropha ticked all packages, says 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, too numerous pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not contend with food due to the fact that it is dangerous."
Governments, international firms, investors and companies purchased into the buzz, 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 prepared 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 known at the time as Swaziland) warned that jatropha's high needs for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international evaluation kept in mind that "growing exceeded both scientific understanding of the crop's potential as well as an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can prosper on limited 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 started to fail as anticipated yields declined to emerge. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and endure drought conditions, as declared, however yields stayed poor.
"In my opinion, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under fairly poorer conditions, developed a huge problem," resulting in "ignored yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise pestered by ecological, social and economic problems, say professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural locations were reported.
Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon debt might never be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, but using fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you take a look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was situated on marginal land, however the idea of limited land is extremely elusive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the country over a number of years, and found that a lax meaning of "minimal" indicated that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha curcas plantations had been lying untouched and unused was typically illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently no one is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't imply that nobody 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 imagery."
Learning from jatropha
There are crucial lessons to be discovered from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which must 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 on 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 buzz was winding down, Muys and coworkers published a paper citing key lessons.
Fundamentally, he explains, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This important requirement for upfront research might be used to other prospective biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for instance, his team released a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel promise.
Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and minimal land. But Muys's research showed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a substantial and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge spaces." Use of such cautionary data could prevent wasteful financial speculation and reckless land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other really appealing trees or plants that could function as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We wanted to prevent [them going] in the exact same instructions of premature buzz and stop working, like jatropha."
Gasparatos highlights important requirements that should be met before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields must be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a ready market must be readily available.
"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird."
How biofuel lands are acquired is also key, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were bought for production, authorities need to guarantee that "guidelines are put in location to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to minimize some of the problems we observed."
A jatropha resurgence?
Despite all these difficulties, some scientists still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel option - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I think jatropha has some possible, however it requires to be the right product, grown in the best location, 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 quotes, its usage as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% decrease of "cradle to grave" emissions.
Alherbawi's group is performing continuous field research studies to improve jatropha curcas yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can actually boost the soil and agricultural lands, and secure them versus any further degeneration triggered by dust storms," he says.
But the Qatar task's success still depends upon many aspects, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production technology that uses the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.
Back in Ghana, jOil is presently 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 describes that years of research study and advancement have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade earlier.
"We had the ability to quicken the yield cycle, enhance the yield variety and improve the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our first job is to broaden our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."
Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is looking at. The fruit and its byproducts might 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 transport sector that still beckons as the ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has as soon as again reopened with the energy transition 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, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "We think any such growth will happen, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [allowing] no competition with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any nation."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends upon complicated factors, including where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say specialists. Then there's the bothersome issue of attaining high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government revealed its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels push that has actually stirred debate over potential repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep trouble, having been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many past plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically unfavorable in most 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 stay uncertain of the ecological 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 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 performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use issues associated with growth of numerous crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not handle the private sector doing whatever they want, in terms of creating ecological problems."
Researchers in Mexico are currently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well suited to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he stays worried about possible environmental costs.
He suggests limiting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in genuinely bad soils in need of repair. "jatropha curcas might be one of those plants that can grow in extremely sterilized wastelands," he discusses. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are greater than the potential advantages."
jatropha curcas's worldwide future stays unsure. And its possible as a tool in the fight versus climate modification can only be opened, state many professionals, by preventing the list of difficulties related to its very first boom.
Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the resurgence is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he states, "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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
A liquid biofuels guide: 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 jobs worldwide - Key facts & 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 performance of jatropha tasks: 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 cultivation for bioenergy: An evaluation of socio-economic and environmental aspects. 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 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 community service approach to figure out whether jatropha projects were located in limited lands in Ghana: Implications for site selection. 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 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 ). An unique technique on the delineation of a multipurpose energy-greenbelt to produce biofuel and battle desertification in dry 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 progress of Jatropha curcas commoditisation as biodiesel feedstock: A comprehensive 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 potential 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 transportation 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 minimal land schedule of Jatropha curcas L.-based biodiesel development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 364, 132655. doi:10.1016/ j.jclepro.2022.132655
FEEDBACK: Use this kind to send out a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
