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Opened Jan 12, 2025 by Lavern McKeon@lavernmckeon0
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Jatropha: the Biofuel that Bombed Seeks a Course 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 extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands throughout 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 everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was polluted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they state, depends on breaking the yield problem and dealing with the harmful land-use problems linked with its original failure.
The sole staying big jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been achieved and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, 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 across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its guarantee 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 development, 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 model of hunting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you require to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.

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

But some researchers are doubtful, keeping in mind 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 essential to discover from past errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in countries where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

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

Miracle shrub, significant bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from grasses, trees and other plants not originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its multiple purported virtues was a capability to flourish on abject or "minimal" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never ever compete with food crops, so the theory went.

At that time, 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 amazing; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or excessive demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food since it is dangerous."

Governments, worldwide firms, financiers and companies bought into the hype, launching initiatives 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 prepared for WWF.

It didn't take long for the mirage of the miraculous 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 needs for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international review noted that "growing outpaced both scientific understanding of the crop's capacity in addition to an understanding of how the crop suits existing rural economies and the degree to which it can prosper 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, 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 could grow on abject lands and tolerate drought conditions, as claimed, but yields stayed bad.

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

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

Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon advantages, however making use of fertilizers resulted in boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was positioned on limited land, however the idea of minimal land is very elusive," discusses 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 presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying unblemished and unused was frequently illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... presently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't indicate that no one is using it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based livelihoods on those landscapes that you may not necessarily see from satellite imagery."

Learning from jatropha

There are key lessons to be discovered from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which ought to be followed when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], but unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based on alleged 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 buzz was winding down, Muys and coworkers published a paper mentioning key lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This vital requirement for in advance research could be applied to other potential biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, for instance, his group 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 degraded and limited land. But Muys's research revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a considerable and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data could avoid wasteful financial speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other extremely promising trees or plants that might serve as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We desired to prevent [them going] in the very same instructions of premature hype and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines important requirements that should be before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market needs to be readily available.

"Basically, the crop needs to be domesticated, or [clinical understanding] at a level that we understand how it is grown," Gasparatos states. 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 bought for production, authorities should ensure that "standards are put in place to inspect how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to decrease some of the issues we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these difficulties, some researchers still believe that under the best conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel service - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "responsible for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think jatropha has some possible, but it requires 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 method that Qatar may reduce airline company carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its usage as a jet fuel might lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is carrying out continuous field studies to increase jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he envisages a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The execution of the green belt can truly boost the soil and farming lands, and protect them versus any more wear and tear triggered by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar project's success still hinges on lots of elements, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another essential step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing effectiveness.

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 explains that years of research study and development have resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were doing not have more than a years back.

"We were able to speed up the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he mentions, 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 by-products could 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 transportation sector that still beckons as the ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually once again resumed with the energy transition drive for oil companies and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A complete jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be completed, but he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two aspects - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "Our company believe any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any way endangering food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially accountable depends upon complicated 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 experts. Then there's the nagging 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 actually stirred argument over possible effects. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep difficulty, having been heavily deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which ended up being problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically negative in the majority of the jatropha sites, because the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he describes.

Other scientists chronicle the "capacity of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers stay uncertain of the eco-friendly viability of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially ends up being so successful, that we will have a lot 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 carried out research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use issues connected with growth of various crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not deal with the personal sector doing whatever they want, in terms of producing environmental issues."

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

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it only in truly poor soils in requirement of restoration. "Jatropha might be one of those plants that can grow in really sterilized wastelands," he describes. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing strategy for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved problems are greater than the potential benefits."

Jatropha's global future remains unpredictable. And its possible as a tool in the fight versus climate modification can just be opened, state numerous experts, by avoiding the list of problems related to its first boom.

Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its role as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" and that the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he says, "to team up 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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

A liquid biofuels guide: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world effects

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 ecosystem service method to figure out whether jatropha tasks were found in minimal lands in Ghana: Implications for website selection. 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 restrictions of promoting new tree crops - Lessons found out from jatropha. Sustainability, 6( 6 ), 3213-3231. doi:10.3390/ su6063213

Alherbawi, M., McKay, G., Govindan, R., Haji, M., & Al-Ansari, T. (2022 ). A novel method on the delineation of a multipurpose energy-greenbelt to produce biofuel and fight desertification in deserts. Journal of Environmental Management, 323, 116223. doi:10.1016/ j.jenvman.2022.116223

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