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Opened Jan 12, 2025 by Suzette Peace@bdnsuzette121
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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 extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might 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 caused plantation failures nearly all over. The after-effects 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 resurgence, they state, depends on splitting the yield issue and addressing the hazardous land-use issues intertwined with its initial failure.
The sole staying big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return fails, the world's experience of jatropha holds essential lessons for any appealing 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 promise 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 and advancement, the sole remaining big plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, declares the jatropha return is on.

"All those business that stopped working, embraced a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild ranges 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 informed Mongabay in an interview.

Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant might yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, decreasing transport carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom could bring extra benefits, with jatropha likewise a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha curcas has actually already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is important to gain from past errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by bad yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts also suggest that jatropha's tale uses lessons for researchers and business owners exploring promising brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from lawns, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several supposed virtues was an ability to prosper on degraded or "minimal" lands; therefore, it was declared 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, a lot of pesticides, or excessive demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food since it is harmful."

Governments, international companies, investors and business purchased into the hype, introducing initiatives to plant, or pledge 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 long for the mirage of the amazing biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known 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 evaluation noted that "growing outpaced both scientific understanding of the crop's potential in addition to 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 stop working as expected yields declined to materialize. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and endure drought conditions, as declared, however yields remained poor.

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

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

Studies found that land-use modification for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss varied between two and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon debt might never ever be recuperated." In India, production showed carbon benefits, but making use of fertilizers led to increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was situated on marginal land, however the concept of marginal land is really elusive," describes 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 meaning of "minimal" suggested that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying untouched and unused was frequently illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The truth that ... presently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming does not indicate that nobody is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite imagery."

Learning from jatropha

There are crucial lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, say experts, which should be heeded when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], however sadly 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 buzz was winding down, 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 in advance research study could be applied to other prospective biofuel crops, he states. Last year, for example, his team launched 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 abject and limited land. But Muys's research study showed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a substantial and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge spaces." Use of such cautionary data might avoid inefficient financial speculation and negligent land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

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

Gasparatos underlines crucial requirements that must be fulfilled before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields must be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a ready market should be readily available.

"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos states. Jatropha "was practically undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."

How biofuel lands are acquired is also essential, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were bought for production, authorities should make sure that "standards are put in location to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to minimize some of the issues we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these challenges, some scientists still think that under the right conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel option - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some potential, but it needs to be the ideal 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 method that Qatar may minimize airline carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its use as a jet fuel might result in about a 40% reduction of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is conducting ongoing field research studies to improve jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can actually enhance the soil and farming lands, and protect them versus any more deterioration triggered by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar project's success still hinges on many aspects, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production technology that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.

Back in Ghana, jOil is presently managing more than 1,300 hectares (1,830 acres) of jatropha curcas, and growing a pilot plot on 300 hectares (740 acres) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian describes that years of research and advancement have actually resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade earlier.

"We were able to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and enhance the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our 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 might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (crucial in Africa where much wood is still burned for cooking), and even bioplastics.

But it is the transportation sector that still beckons as the perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has once again resumed with the energy shift drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A total jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be completed, but he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions connected to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "Our company believe any such growth will take location, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [enabling] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends on intricate factors, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state professionals. Then there's the bothersome problem of achieving 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 argument over prospective effects. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having actually been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically negative in the majority of the jatropha websites, due to the fact that the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he discusses.

Other researchers chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists stay uncertain of the ecological practicality 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 lot of associated land-use modification," states 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 actually conducted research study on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out past land-use problems related to expansion of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not deal with the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of creating ecological issues."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about potential environmental costs.

He recommends limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in really poor soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in very sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing method for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are greater than the potential advantages."

Jatropha's global future remains unsure. And its possible as a tool in the battle against environment modification can just be unlocked, state many experts, by preventing the list of troubles related to its very first boom.

Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the resurgence is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market 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).

A liquid biofuels primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts

Citations:

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Romijn, H., Heijnen, S., Colthoff, J. R., De Jong, B., & Van Eijck, J. (2014 ). Economic and social sustainability efficiency of jatropha jobs: Arise from field studies in Mozambique, Tanzania and Mali. Sustainability, 6( 9 ), 6203-6235. doi:10.3390/ su6096203

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Ahmed, A., Jarzebski, M. P., & Gasparatos, A. (2018 ). Using the community service technique to determine whether jatropha tasks were found in marginal lands in Ghana: Implications for site choice. 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 constraints of promoting brand-new tree crops - Lessons learned 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 deserts. Journal of Environmental Management, 323, 116223. doi:10.1016/ j.jenvman.2022.116223

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