Jatropha: The Biofuel That Bombed Seeks A Path To Redemption
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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was wildly promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on degraded 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 aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations 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 state, is dependent on splitting the yield issue and dealing with the harmful land-use problems intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole remaining big jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated ranges have been accomplished 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 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 broken down, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields failed.
Now, after years of research study and advancement, the sole staying large plantation concentrated on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha resurgence is on.
"All those companies that failed, adopted a plug-and-play model of searching for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This belongs of the procedure that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.
Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant might yet play an essential role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, decreasing transport carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom might bring additional benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.
But some scientists are skeptical, noting that jatropha has actually already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is necessary to discover from past errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not just by bad yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.
Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale provides lessons for scientists and business owners exploring promising brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.
Miracle shrub, significant bust
Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from turfs, trees and other plants not obtained from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous supposed virtues was a capability to thrive on degraded or "marginal" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never compete with food crops, so the theory went.
Back then, jatropha ticked all the boxes, states 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 lots of pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not compete with food since it is toxic."
Governments, global companies, investors and business purchased into the hype, launching efforts 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 got ready for WWF.
It didn't take long 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 indeed bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global evaluation noted that "growing outmatched both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity along with an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can flourish 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, just 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to stop working as anticipated yields refused to emerge. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and tolerate drought conditions, as declared, but yields stayed poor.
"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under fairly poorer conditions, produced a very big issue," resulting in "underestimated yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.
As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise pestered by environmental, social and financial problems, state experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.
Studies discovered that land-use change for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico found the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss varied in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon debt may never ever be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon benefits, but using fertilizers resulted in boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."
"If you take a look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was located on limited land, however the concept of minimal land is very evasive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker 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 definition of "limited" suggested that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was often illusory.
"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently nobody is using [land] for farming doesn't indicate that no one is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you might not always see from satellite images."
Learning from jatropha
There are key lessons to be discovered from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which ought to be heeded when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.
"There was a boom [in investment], however unfortunately not of research study, and action was taken based upon supposed 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 hype was unwinding, Muys and colleagues published a paper pointing out crucial lessons.
Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This crucial requirement for upfront research might be applied to other possible biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for instance, his group released a paper evaluating the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree types" with biofuel pledge.
Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and limited land. But Muys's research revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge spaces." Use of such cautionary information could prevent wasteful monetary speculation and reckless land conversion for new biofuels.
"There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that might act as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We wanted to avoid [them going] in the same direction of premature hype and fail, like jatropha."
Gasparatos underlines vital requirements that need to be fulfilled before moving ahead with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set market needs to be 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 practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so strange."
How biofuel lands are acquired is likewise key, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were acquired for production, authorities should ensure that "standards are put in location to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to minimize some of the issues we observed."
A jatropha return?
Despite all these difficulties, some researchers still believe that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel solution - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."
"I believe jatropha has some possible, however it requires to be the ideal product, grown in the ideal location, 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 manner in which Qatar may decrease airline carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel might result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.
Alherbawi's group is performing ongoing field studies to improve jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he imagines a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can actually improve the soil and farming lands, and protect them against any further deterioration caused by dust storms," he says.
But the Qatar job's success still depends upon many factors, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that uses the whole of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.
Back in Ghana, jOil is currently 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 advancement have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a years back.
"We were able to quicken the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and enhance the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian says. 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 byproducts might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal substitute (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 perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually once again resumed with the energy transition 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 completed, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "Our company believe any such expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [enabling] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method threatening food security of any country."
Where next for jatropha?
Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends upon complex elements, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say professionals. Then there's the unpleasant problem of accomplishing high yields.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian government revealed its intention to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has stirred argument over potential consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep trouble, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.
Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which ended up being problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often negative in most of the jatropha sites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he describes.
Other researchers chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain doubtful of the eco-friendly practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps becomes so successful, that we will have a lot 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 performed research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.
Avila-Ortega points out past land-use problems connected with growth of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the private sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of producing environmental problems."
Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well matched to regional contexts, concurs, though he remains concerned about possible environmental costs.
He recommends restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in truly bad soils in need of remediation. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in really sterilized wastelands," he explains. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery method for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are greater than the potential benefits."
Jatropha's global future remains unsure. And its possible as a tool in the battle against climate modification can just be opened, say many experts, by avoiding the litany of difficulties connected with its very first boom.
Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" and that the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry 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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
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