Mission Biotechnologies Sdn. Bhd

Jatropha: the Biofuel that Bombed Seeks a Course To Redemption

If you liked this story, share it with other individuals.

Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a “wonder” biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree native to Central America, it was hugely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could 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 resulted in plantation failures almost everywhere. The consequences of the jatropha crash was tainted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.

Today, some scientists continue pursuing the evasive pledge of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they state, depends on splitting the yield issue and resolving the harmful land-use concerns intertwined with its original failure.

The sole staying big 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 fails, the world’s experience of jatropha holds crucial lessons for any appealing up-and-coming biofuel.

At the beginning 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 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 advancement, the sole staying big plantation concentrated on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha resurgence is on.

“All those business that stopped working, embraced a plug-and-play design of scouting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you require to domesticate it. This is a part of the process that was missed out on [throughout the boom],” jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having gained from the mistakes of jatropha’s previous failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, minimizing transportation carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are doubtful, keeping in mind that jatropha has currently gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is important to find out from previous errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social problems in nations where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil operates.

Experts likewise recommend that jatropha’s tale provides lessons for researchers and business owners checking out promising brand-new sources for liquid biofuels – which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha’s early 21st-century appeal came from its promise 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 grow on degraded or “limited” lands; therefore, it was claimed it would never ever complete with food crops, so the theory went.

Back then, jatropha ticked all the boxes, says 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, a lot of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not complete with food due to the fact that it is toxic.”

Governments, global firms, financiers and business bought into the hype, launching initiatives to plant, or guarantee to plant, millions of hectares of jatropha. By 2008, plantations covered some 900,000 (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 miraculous biofuel tree to fade.

In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha‘s high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review kept in mind that “cultivation exceeded 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 flourish 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 refused to emerge. Jatropha could grow on degraded lands and endure drought conditions, as claimed, however yields remained poor.

“In my viewpoint, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under relatively poorer conditions, developed a very huge problem,” leading to “undervalued yields that were going to be produced,” Gasparatos states.

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

Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the “carbon repayment” of jatropha plantations due to involved forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and “in some circumstances, the carbon debt might never ever be recuperated.” In India, production showed carbon advantages, but using fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water “acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication.”

“If you look at many of the plantations in Ghana, they declare that the jatropha produced was located on marginal land, but the idea of limited land is extremely evasive,” discusses Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the implications of jatropha plantations in the nation over several years, and discovered that a lax definition of “minimal” meant that presumptions 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 nobody is using [land] for farming doesn’t suggest that nobody is using it [for other purposes] 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 essential lessons to be found out from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which ought to be observed when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

“There was a boom [in financial investment], but sadly not of research, 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 hype was winding down, Muys and associates published a paper citing essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its needs. This crucial requirement for upfront research study might be applied to other prospective biofuel crops, he states. Last year, for instance, his group released 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 highly variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that “pongamia still can not be thought about a significant and steady source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting knowledge spaces.” Use of such cautionary data might prevent wasteful financial speculation and reckless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

“There are other really appealing trees or plants that might serve as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer,” Muys says. “We wished to avoid [them going] in the exact same instructions of premature hype and fail, like jatropha.”

Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that must be fulfilled before moving ahead with new biofuel plantations: high yields must be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, 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 says. Jatropha “was almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so weird.”

How biofuel lands are acquired is also key, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally utilized lands were acquired for production, authorities should ensure that “guidelines are put in location to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to minimize some of the problems we observed.”

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these challenges, some scientists still believe that under the right conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel service – especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector “accountable for around one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.”

“I think jatropha has some potential, but it needs to be the best material, grown in the ideal place, 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 way that Qatar may minimize airline carbon emissions. According to his estimates, its use as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% decrease of “cradle to grave” emissions.

Alherbawi’s group is performing ongoing field 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 (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. “The application of the green belt can actually improve the soil and farming lands, and protect them against any further deterioration brought on by dust storms,” he says.

But the Qatar task’s success still hinges on lots of aspects, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi explains, is scaling up production technology that uses the totality 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 discusses that years of research study and development have resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now attain the high yields that were doing not have more than a years ago.

“We had the ability to hasten the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree,” Subramanian says. 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 byproducts could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal substitute (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 ideal biofuels application, according to Subramanian. “The biofuels story has once again reopened with the energy shift drive for oil business 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, however he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be “competitive … These two elements – that it is technically ideal, and the carbon sequestration – makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for … sustainable air travel,” he states. “We believe any such expansion will take location, [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 complicated factors, consisting of 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 accomplishing high yields.

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

Many previous plantations in Ghana, warns Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which ended up being troublesome for carbon accounting. “The net carbon was frequently unfavorable in the majority of the jatropha sites, since 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 environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock” in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain skeptical of the environmental viability 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 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 performed research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out past land-use issues associated with expansion of various crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: “Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not deal with the private sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of developing ecological problems.”

Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based livestock feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains concerned about prospective environmental expenses.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a “crop that conquers land,” growing it just in really bad soils in requirement of restoration. “Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterile wastelands,” he discusses. “That’s the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico – as part of a forest recovery method for wastelands. Otherwise, the associated problems are greater than the possible benefits.”

Jatropha’s global future remains unsure. And its possible as a tool in the fight against environment modification can only be unlocked, state lots of experts, by preventing the list of problems associated with its first boom.

Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up again? Subramanian thinks its function as a sustainable biofuel is “impending” which the comeback is on. “We have strong interest from the energy market now,” he says, “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 through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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

Citations:

Wahl, N., Hildebrandt, T., Moser, C., Lüdeke-Freund, F., Averdunk, K., Bailis, R., … Zelt, T. (2012 ). Insights into jatropha projects around the world – Key realities & figures from an international study. Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM), Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. doi:10.2139/ ssrn.2254823

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

Trebbin, A. (2021 ). Land grabbing and jatropha in India: An analysis of ‘hyped’ discourse on the topic. Land, 10( 10 ), 1063. doi:10.3390/ land10101063

Van Eijck, J., Romijn, H., Balkema, A., & Faaij, A. (2014 ). Global experience with jatropha growing for bioenergy: An assessment of socio-economic and environmental aspects. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 32, 869-889. doi:10.1016/ j.rser.2014.01.028

Skutsch, M., De los Rios, E., Solis, S., Riegelhaupt, E., Hinojosa, D., Gerfert, S., … Masera, O. (2011 ). Jatropha in Mexico: environmental and social impacts of an incipient biofuel program. Ecology and Society, 16( 4 ). doi:10.5751/ ES-04448-160411

Gmünder, S., Singh, R., Pfister, S., Adheloya, A., & Zah, R. (2012 ). Environmental impacts of Jatropha curcas biodiesel in India. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, 2012. doi:10.1155/ 2012/623070

Ahmed, A., Jarzebski, M. P., & Gasparatos, A. (2018 ). Using the community service approach to determine whether jatropha jobs were found in limited lands in Ghana: Implications for website 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 restraints of promoting 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 ). A novel method on the delineation of a multipurpose energy-greenbelt to produce biofuel and combat desertification in dry areas. Journal of Environmental Management, 323, 116223. doi:10.1016/ j.jenvman.2022.116223

Riayatsyah, T. M. I., Sebayang, A. H., Silitonga, A. S., Padli, Y., Fattah, I. M. R., Kusumo, F., … Mahlia, T. M. I. (2022 ). Current progress of Jatropha curcas commoditisation as biodiesel feedstock: A detailed review. Frontiers in Energy Research, 9, 1019. doi:10.3389/ fenrg.2021.815416

Mokhtar, E. S., Akhir, N. M., Zaki, N. A. M., Muharam, F. M., Pradhan, B., & Lay, U. S. (2021 ). Land viability for potential jatropha plantation in Malaysia. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 620( 1 ), 012002. doi:10.1088/ 1755-1315/620/ 1/012002

Chamola, R., Kumar, N., & Jain, S. (2022 ). Jatropha: A sustainable source of transport fuel in India. In Advancement in Materials, Manufacturing and Energy Engineering, Vol. II: Select Proceedings of ICAMME 2021 (pp. 395-408). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. doi:10.1007/ 978-981-16-8341-1_32

Peralta, H., Avila-Ortega, D. I., & García-Flores, J. C. (2022 ). Jatropha farm: A circular economy proposal for the non-toxic physic nut crop in Mexico. Environmental Sciences Proceedings, 15( 1 ), 10. doi:10.3390/ environsciproc2022015010

Hao, M., Qian, Y., Xie, X., Chen, S., Ding, F., & Ma, T. (2022 ). Global minimal land availability of Jatropha curcas L.-based biodiesel advancement. Journal of Cleaner Production, 364, 132655. doi:10.1016/ j.jclepro.2022.132655

FEEDBACK: Use this type to send out a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public remark, you can do that at the bottom of the page.