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 could grow on abject 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 almost all over. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they state, depends on breaking the yield issue and dealing with the damaging land-use problems intertwined with its original failure.

The sole remaining big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been achieved 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 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 study and development, the sole remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha remains 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 design of scouting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This belongs of the process that was missed [throughout the boom],“ jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.

Having learned from the errors of jatropha’s past failures, he says the oily plant might yet play a crucial role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A new boom might bring extra advantages, with jatropha also 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 caution that if the plant is to reach full capacity, then it is vital to learn from previous mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by bad yields, however by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts also suggest that jatropha’s tale offers lessons for researchers and entrepreneurs exploring promising 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 several purported virtues was an ability to flourish on abject or „marginal“ lands; hence, it was declared it would never ever 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 seemed miraculous; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too lots of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is dangerous.“

Governments, international companies, investors and companies purchased into the hype, launching initiatives 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 got ready for WWF.

It didn’t take wish for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha’s high demands for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review noted that „growing outmatched both clinical understanding of the crop’s potential as well as an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can grow 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 fail as anticipated yields refused to materialize. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and tolerate drought conditions, as claimed, but yields stayed bad.

„In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and possible to grow under fairly poorer conditions, developed a huge issue,“ leading to „underestimated yields that were going to be produced,“ Gasparatos states.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise pestered by ecological, social and financial problems, say specialists. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and clearing 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 discovered the „carbon payback“ of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss varied in between 2 and 14 years, and „in some scenarios, the carbon debt might never ever be recuperated.“ In India, production revealed carbon benefits, but making use of fertilizers led to increases of soil and water „acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication.“

„If you take a look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was located on limited land, but the idea of minimal land is really evasive,“ discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the nation over numerous years, and found that a lax definition of „marginal“ implied that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was often illusory.

„Marginal to whom?“ he asks. „The fact that … currently no one is using [land] for farming doesn’t imply that nobody is utilizing it [for other purposes] There are a lot of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite images.“

Learning from jatropha

There are crucial lessons to be discovered from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which must be heeded when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

„There was a boom [in financial investment], however regrettably not of research study, and action was taken based on alleged 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 coworkers released a paper pointing out key lessons.

Fundamentally, he explains, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This crucial requirement for in advance research study might be applied to other possible biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for example, his team released a paper examining the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a „fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species“ with biofuel pledge.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and marginal land. But Muys’s research study 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 knowledge spaces.“ Use of such cautionary data could avoid inefficient monetary speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

„There are other extremely appealing trees or plants that could act as a fuel or a biomass producer,“ Muys says. „We wished to avoid [them going] in the same instructions of premature hype and stop working, like jatropha.“

Gasparatos highlights 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 must be readily 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 weird.“

How biofuel lands are acquired is also essential, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were acquired for production, authorities should make sure that „guidelines 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 resurgence?

Despite all these challenges, some researchers still believe that under the right conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel option – especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector „accountable for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.“

„I think jatropha has some prospective, but it requires to be the right product, grown in the best 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 reduce airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% reduction of „cradle to tomb“ emissions.

Alherbawi’s group is conducting continuous field studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. „The execution of the green belt can truly enhance the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them against any further deterioration triggered by dust storms,“ he says.

But the Qatar project’s success still depends upon many factors, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another essential action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production innovation that uses the whole of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.

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) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian discusses that years of research study and development have actually led to ranges of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were lacking more than a years back.

„We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree,“ Subramanian says. In essence, he mentions, the tree is now domesticated. „Our very first job 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 alternative (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 ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. „The biofuels story has actually once again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil companies 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, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be „competitive … These 2 elements – that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration – makes it a very strong candidate for adoption for … sustainable aviation,“ he states. „Our company believe any such growth will occur, [by clarifying] the definition of abject land, [enabling] no competition with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any country.“

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends upon intricate aspects, consisting of where and how it’s grown – whether, for instance, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say experts. Then there’s the bothersome issue of achieving high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian government revealed its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has actually stirred dispute over prospective repercussions. The Gran Chaco’s dry forest biome is already in deep trouble, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which ended up being troublesome for carbon accounting. „The net carbon was frequently unfavorable in most 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 „capacity of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock“ in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay skeptical of the ecological viability 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,“ says Daniel Itzamna Avila-Ortega, co-founder of the Mexican Center of Industrial Ecology and a Ph.D. student with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has performed research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites past land-use problems related to growth of various crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: „Our police is so weak that it can not cope with the private sector doing whatever they desire, in regards to creating environmental problems.“

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages may be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays worried about prospective environmental costs.

He recommends limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a „crop that dominates land,“ growing it just in genuinely poor soils in requirement of remediation. „Jatropha might be one of those plants that can grow in really sterile wastelands,“ he discusses. „That’s the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico – as part of a forest recovery strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are greater than the possible benefits.“

Jatropha’s global future remains uncertain. And its potential as a tool in the fight versus environment modification can just be unlocked, say many specialists, by avoiding the litany of difficulties related to its very first boom.

Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its role as a sustainable biofuel is „impending“ and that the return is on. „We have strong interest from the energy industry now,“ he says, „to collaborate with us to establish 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 primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts

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