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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree native to Central America, it was hugely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on abject lands across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
A jatropha rush ensued, 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 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 say, is dependent on breaking the yield issue and dealing with the harmful land-use problems linked with its original failure.
The sole remaining large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been accomplished and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback 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, 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 could be grown on degraded, 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 big plantation concentrated on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha return is on.

"All those companies that stopped working, embraced a plug-and-play design of searching for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed out on [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having gained from the errors of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom could bring additional benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach full capacity, then it is important to gain from previous mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not only by bad yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts also recommend that jatropha's tale offers lessons for researchers and business owners exploring appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, significant bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its guarantee 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 grow on degraded or "limited" lands; thus, it was declared it would never ever take on food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, jatropha ticked all packages, states Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that seemed 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 due to the fact that it is harmful."

Governments, worldwide agencies, financiers and companies purchased into the hype, releasing efforts to plant, or promise 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 study prepared for WWF.

It didn't take long for the mirage of the incredible biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood 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 review noted that "cultivation outpaced both clinical 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 grow 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 fail as expected yields refused to materialize. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as declared, but yields stayed bad.

"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and possible to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, created a very huge issue," leading to "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were also plagued by ecological, social and economic difficulties, say specialists. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.

Studies discovered that land-use change for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon debt may never be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon advantages, however 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 claim that the jatropha produced was located on limited land, but the concept of minimal land is very elusive," explains 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 meaning of "marginal" meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was typically illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... presently no one is utilizing [land] for farming does not mean that nobody is using it [for other functions] There are a lot of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite imagery."

Learning from jatropha

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

"There was a boom [in investment], but unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based on supposed advantages of jatropha," says 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 unwinding, Muys and colleagues published a paper pointing out essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he explains, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This crucial requirement for in advance research could be applied to other potential biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for example, his group launched a paper analyzing the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel promise.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and marginal land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a considerable and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding gaps." Use of such cautionary information could prevent wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other really appealing trees or plants that might act as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We wanted to avoid [them going] in the exact same instructions of premature hype and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines essential requirements that must be fulfilled before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market must be available.

"Basically, the crop requires 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 unusual."

How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise crucial, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were acquired for production, authorities need to guarantee that "standards are put in place to examine how massive land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to lower a few of the problems we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these difficulties, some scientists still believe that under the right conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel option - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some prospective, however it needs to be the best material, grown in the right place, 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 may decrease airline company 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 boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can really enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them against any additional degeneration triggered by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar project's success still hinges on numerous factors, not least the capability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

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 describes that years of research and advancement have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade earlier.

"We were able to speed up the yield cycle, improve the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first project is to expand our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."

Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is looking at. The fruit and its by-products could 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 perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has as soon as 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 assessment has yet to be finished, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "Our company believe any such growth will occur, [by clarifying] the definition of abject land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially accountable depends upon complicated aspects, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state professionals. Then there's the nagging problem of achieving 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 push that has stirred dispute over potential repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep problem, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically unfavorable in many of the jatropha websites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he explains.

Other scientists chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay skeptical of the eco-friendly 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 effective, that we will have a great deal 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 carried out research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use problems associated with expansion of numerous crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not cope with the economic sector doing whatever they want, in regards to producing ecological issues."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well fit to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays concerned about prospective ecological costs.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in genuinely bad soils in need of repair. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterilized wastelands," he explains. "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 greater than the prospective benefits."

Jatropha's global future remains unpredictable. And its potential as a tool in the fight versus environment change can just be opened, say numerous specialists, by preventing the list of difficulties connected with its first boom.

Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "to team up with us to develop and expand the supply chain of jatropha curcas."

Banner image: Jatropha curcas trees in Hawai'i. Image by Forest and Kim Starr by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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