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Opened Jan 12, 2025 by Gabriela Nickel@gabriela383186
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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. A simple shrubby tree native 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 took place, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields led to plantation failures almost all over. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they state, is reliant on cracking the yield problem and addressing the hazardous land-use concerns linked with its initial failure.
The sole staying large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been achieved and a new boom is at hand. But even if this resurgence falters, 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, an unassuming shrub-like tree belonging 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 degraded, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields fell flat.

Now, after years of research study and advancement, the sole remaining big plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha resurgence is on.

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

Having learned from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant might yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transportation carbon emissions at the international level. A brand-new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is vital to discover from past mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts likewise recommend that jatropha's tale provides lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs exploring promising brand-new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major 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 obtained from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several purported virtues was a capability to flourish on degraded or "marginal" lands; therefore, it was claimed it would never complete with food crops, so the theory went.

Back then, jatropha ticked all packages, says Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that seemed amazing; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too numerous pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not compete with food because it is toxic."

Governments, international firms, investors and companies purchased into the hype, introducing efforts 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 got ready for WWF.

It didn't take wish for the mirage of the miraculous biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known at the time as Swaziland) warned that jatropha's high demands for land would certainly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global review kept in mind that "growing exceeded both scientific understanding of the crop's capacity as well as an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can prosper on marginal 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 expected yields declined to emerge. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as declared, however yields stayed bad.

"In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and potential to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, created a very 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 environmental, social and economic difficulties, state experts. 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 nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon debt might never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon benefits, however the usage of fertilizers resulted in increases of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you take a look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was situated on limited land, however the idea of minimal land is extremely elusive," describes Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the nation over several years, and found that a lax meaning of "minimal" implied that assumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying unblemished and unused was typically illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently no one is utilizing [land] for farming does not mean that nobody 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 imagery."

Learning from jatropha

There are key lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, say analysts, which ought to 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 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 winding down, Muys and colleagues published a paper citing essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This vital requirement for upfront research could be applied to other possible biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for example, his group launched a paper examining 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 minimal land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data could avoid inefficient financial speculation and reckless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other really promising trees or plants that could function as a fuel or a biomass producer," Muys states. "We desired to avoid [them going] in the same instructions of early buzz and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines important requirements that must be fulfilled before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a prepared 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 virtually undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."

How biofuel lands are gotten is likewise essential, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were bought for production, authorities must make sure that "guidelines are put in location to inspect how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to reduce a few of the issues we observed."

A jatropha resurgence?

Despite all these difficulties, some researchers still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha might be an important biofuel service - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think jatropha has some potential, however it needs to be the ideal product, grown in the best place, and so on," Muys stated.

Mohammad Alherbawi, a postdoctoral research fellow at Bin Khalifa University, continues holding out hope for jatropha. He sees it as a manner in which Qatar might lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is performing continuous field studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can truly boost the soil and agricultural lands, and secure them versus any further degeneration triggered by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar job's success still depends upon many factors, not least the capability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another essential step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.

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) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian explains that years of research and advancement have actually led to ranges of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were lacking more than a years ago.

"We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and enhance the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first task is to broaden 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 (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 once again resumed with the energy shift drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look 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 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 air travel," he states. "Our company believe any such expansion will take location, [by clarifying] the definition of abject land, [permitting] no competition with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends on complex factors, including where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say experts. Then there's the irritating problem of attaining 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 stirred debate over potential consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep trouble, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many previous plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which became problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was frequently negative in the majority 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 environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain uncertain of the ecological practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it perhaps ends up being so successful, that we will have a lot of associated land-use change," says 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 actually conducted research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out past land-use problems associated with growth of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not manage the private sector doing whatever they want, in terms of producing environmental problems."

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well suited to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he stays concerned about prospective environmental costs.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in really poor soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha might be one of those plants that can grow in really sterile wastelands," he explains. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing technique for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated issues are higher than the potential advantages."

Jatropha's worldwide future remains unsure. And its possible as a tool in the battle against environment change can only be opened, state numerous specialists, by preventing the list of problems associated with its first boom.

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

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

A liquid biofuels guide: 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 performance of jatropha tasks: Results from field surveys 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 method to determine whether jatropha jobs were located in minimal lands in Ghana: Implications for website choice. Biomass and Bioenergy, 114, 112-124. doi:10.1016/ j.biombioe.2017.07.020

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Alherbawi, M., McKay, G., Govindan, R., Haji, M., & Al-Ansari, T. (2022 ). An unique approach on the delineation of a multipurpose energy-greenbelt to produce biofuel and combat desertification in dry regions. Journal of Environmental Management, 323, 116223. doi:10.1016/ j.jenvman.2022.116223

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