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 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 occurred, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields led to plantation failures nearly all over. The consequences of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon decrease claims.

Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they state, is reliant on cracking the yield problem and addressing the damaging land-use issues intertwined with its original failure.

The sole staying big jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have been accomplished and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds essential lessons for any promising 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 pledge 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 and development, the sole staying big plantation focused on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on.

"All those business that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play model of searching for the wild ranges 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 gained from the errors of jatropha's previous failures, he says the oily plant might yet play an essential function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, carbon emissions at the international level. A new boom could bring fringe benefits, with jatropha likewise a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are doubtful, keeping in mind that jatropha has actually currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is necessary to find out from previous mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not just by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in countries 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 appealing new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, significant bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came from its pledge as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from lawns, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous supposed virtues was an ability to flourish on degraded or "limited" lands; thus, it was declared it would never take on food crops, so the theory went.

Back then, jatropha ticked all packages, states Alexandros Gasparatos, now at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives. "We had a crop that seemed incredible; 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 contend with food due to the fact that it is dangerous."

Governments, global agencies, financiers and companies bought into the buzz, 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 research study prepared for WWF.

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

In 2009, a Buddies of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high needs for land would certainly bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global evaluation noted that "cultivation outmatched both scientific understanding of the crop's potential along with an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can prosper 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 started to stop working as anticipated yields declined to materialize. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and tolerate drought conditions, as claimed, but yields stayed poor.

"In my opinion, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and possible to grow under relatively poorer conditions, created a really big problem," resulting in "underestimated 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 economic troubles, say experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.

Studies discovered that land-use change for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation might never be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon benefits, but the usage of fertilizers resulted in boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you take a look at most of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was located on limited land, but the idea of limited land is extremely elusive," discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the country over a number of years, and discovered that a lax definition of "limited" meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was often illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The reality that ... currently no one is using [land] for farming does not mean that nobody is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a great deal of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you might not necessarily see from satellite imagery."

Learning from jatropha

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

"There was a boom [in investment], but sadly 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 released a paper citing crucial lessons.

Fundamentally, he explains, there was a lack of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This essential requirement for upfront research could be applied to other prospective biofuel crops, he says. Last year, for instance, his team released a paper analyzing the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel pledge.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on abject 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 considered a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge gaps." Use of such cautionary data could avoid wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

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

Gasparatos underlines essential requirements that should be met before moving ahead with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields must be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a prepared market should be offered.

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

How biofuel lands are obtained is likewise key, says Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were acquired for production, authorities need to make sure that "standards are put in place to check how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to minimize a few of the problems we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these obstacles, some scientists still think that under the best conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel service - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "responsible for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I believe jatropha has some potential, but it requires to be the best material, grown in the ideal 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 lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its usage as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's group is performing continuous field research studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he envisages a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can really enhance the soil and farming lands, and secure them versus any more deterioration brought on by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar job's success still hinges on many aspects, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another essential step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

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) dealing with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian discusses that years of research and development have resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were lacking more than a years earlier.

"We had the ability to speed up the yield cycle, enhance the yield range and boost the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. "Our 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 might 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 transport sector that still beckons as the perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has actually 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 completed, but he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 elements - that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he states. "We believe any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the meaning of degraded land, [permitting] no competition with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially responsible depends on 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, say experts. Then there's the unpleasant problem of achieving high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government announced its objective to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a national biofuels press that has actually stirred argument over prospective consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep difficulty, having been heavily 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 frequently negative in many of the jatropha sites, because 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 doubtful of the eco-friendly practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially becomes so effective, 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. student with the Stockholm Resilience Centre; he has carried out research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega mentions previous land-use issues related to growth of various crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not handle the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of creating ecological issues."

Researchers in Mexico are currently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays concerned about potential ecological costs.

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

Jatropha's worldwide future remains unsure. And its potential as a tool in the fight versus climate modification can only be unlocked, say many specialists, by preventing the litany of troubles associated with its very first boom.

Will jatropha tasks that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" which the resurgence is on. "We have strong interest from the energy market now," he states, "to work together 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).

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