Jatropha: The Biofuel That Bombed Seeks A Path 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 wildly 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 resulted in plantation failures nearly everywhere. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they say, is reliant on breaking the yield problem and attending to the hazardous land-use problems linked with its original failure.

The sole remaining large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been attained and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this resurgence fails, 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 belonging to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its pledge as a sustainable source of biofuel that might be grown on deteriorated, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields fell flat.


Now, after years of research study and development, the sole staying large plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha return is on.


"All those companies that failed, embraced a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed out on [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.


Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant could yet play a key function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A new boom might bring additional benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.


But some researchers are hesitant, noting that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach full capacity, then it is important to gain from previous errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.


Experts likewise recommend that jatropha's tale uses lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs checking out promising 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 turfs, 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 prosper on degraded or "limited" lands; thus, it was claimed it would never ever take on 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 seemed miraculous; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or too much need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not compete with food since it is dangerous."


Governments, worldwide agencies, financiers and business bought into the buzz, introducing initiatives to plant, or promise 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 miraculous 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, an international review kept in mind that "cultivation outmatched both scientific 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 grow 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 fail as expected yields refused to materialize. Jatropha could grow on abject lands and endure drought conditions, as claimed, however yields remained poor.


"In my opinion, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under fairly poorer conditions, produced a huge problem," leading to "undervalued yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.


As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise afflicted by ecological, social and financial difficulties, state experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing of natural areas were reported.


Studies found that land-use modification for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha curcas plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon debt may never be recovered." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, however making use of fertilizers resulted in boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."


"If you look at most of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was situated on minimal land, but the idea of marginal land is extremely elusive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the nation over a number of years, and discovered that a lax definition of "marginal" suggested that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha curcas plantations had been lying unblemished and unused was frequently illusory.


"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... presently no one is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't suggest that no one is using it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite images."


Learning from jatropha


There are essential lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which need to be observed when considering other advantageous 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," says Bart Muys, a teacher in the Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2014, as the jatropha hype was unwinding, Muys and coworkers published a paper mentioning key lessons.


Fundamentally, he explains, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This important requirement for upfront research study might be used to other potential biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for instance, his team released a paper evaluating 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 marginal land. But Muys's research showed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge spaces." Use of such cautionary data might avoid wasteful monetary speculation and reckless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.


"There are other really promising trees or plants that might serve as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys says. "We wished to avoid [them going] in the exact same direction of premature hype and stop working, like jatropha."


Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that need to be fulfilled before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market needs to 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 virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."


How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise essential, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were acquired for production, authorities need to ensure that "standards are put in place to inspect how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to decrease a few of the problems we observed."


A jatropha resurgence?


Despite all these obstacles, some researchers still think that under the right conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."


"I believe jatropha has some prospective, but it needs to be the best material, grown in the best location, and so on," Muys said.


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 may minimize airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its use as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% reduction of "cradle to grave" emissions.


Alherbawi's group is conducting continuous field research studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can truly enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and secure them against any more degeneration caused by dust storms," he states.


But the Qatar project's success still hinges on numerous aspects, not least the ability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another vital step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes 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) dealing with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian explains that years of research and development have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were lacking more than a decade earlier.


"We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very 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 when 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 assessment has yet to be completed, however he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a very strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "Our company believe any such expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [permitting] no competition with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any nation."


Where next for jatropha?


Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially accountable depends upon complicated aspects, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there's the nagging problem of achieving high yields.


Earlier this year, the Bolivian government revealed its intention to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels push that has stirred argument over possible repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep problem, having been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.


Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which ended up being bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often negative 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 scientists chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay doubtful 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 performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.


Avila-Ortega mentions past land-use issues associated with expansion of different crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not manage the economic sector doing whatever they want, in terms of creating ecological problems."


Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well fit to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays concerned about possible ecological expenses.


He recommends restricting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in truly poor soils in requirement of restoration. "Jatropha might be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterilized wastelands," he explains. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are higher than the prospective benefits."


Jatropha's international future stays unpredictable. And its potential as a tool in the battle against environment modification can just be opened, state many specialists, by preventing the litany of problems associated with its first boom.


Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian thinks its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the comeback is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "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).


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