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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. An unassuming shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was hugely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands throughout 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 almost everywhere. 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 promise of high-yielding jatropha curcas. A return, they state, depends on breaking the yield issue and addressing the damaging land-use problems linked with its original failure.
The sole remaining large jatropha plantation remains in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated ranges have been attained and a new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, the world's experience of jatropha holds important 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 pledge 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 fell flat.

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

"All those business that stopped working, adopted a plug-and-play design of searching 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 out on [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having gained from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play an essential function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, decreasing transport carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom could bring extra benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some scientists are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has actually already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete potential, then it is important to find out from past errors. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not only by poor yields, however by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where it was planted, consisting of Ghana, where jOil runs.

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

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its promise as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from turfs, trees and other plants not obtained from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous supposed virtues was an ability to prosper on degraded or "limited" lands; hence, it was claimed 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 seemed incredible; 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 take on food because it is harmful."

Governments, international companies, financiers and business purchased into the buzz, releasing 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 study prepared 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 understood at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha's high needs for land would indeed bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a worldwide review kept in mind that "growing exceeded both scientific understanding of the crop's capacity in addition to an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can thrive on limited 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, only 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to fail as anticipated yields declined to emerge. Jatropha could grow on abject lands and endure dry spell conditions, as claimed, but yields remained poor.

"In my opinion, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented potential, and prospective to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, created a huge problem," resulting in "ignored yields that were going to be produced," Gasparatos says.

As jatropha plantations went from boom to bust, they were likewise afflicted by ecological, social and economic troubles, state professionals. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.

Studies discovered that land-use modification for jatropha curcas in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania led to a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico found the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some scenarios, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recovered." In India, production showed carbon benefits, however making use of fertilizers resulted in boosts 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 positioned on limited land, however the concept of limited land is really evasive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a lecturer at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha curcas plantations in the country over a number of years, and found that a lax definition of "minimal" meant that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was typically illusory.

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

Learning from jatropha

There are essential lessons to be discovered from the experience with jatropha, say experts, which should be observed when considering other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in financial investment], however unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based upon supposed advantages of jatropha," says 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 unwinding, Muys and coworkers released a paper citing essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he describes, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This crucial requirement for upfront research study might be used to other potential 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 guarantee.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and limited land. But Muys's research study showed yields to be highly 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 information could prevent wasteful monetary speculation and careless land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

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

Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that need to be satisfied before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a ready market needs to be 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 strange."

How biofuel lands are acquired is likewise key, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were acquired for production, authorities should make sure that "guidelines are put in place to inspect how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to lower some of the problems we observed."

A jatropha curcas return?

Despite all these challenges, some researchers still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha could be a valuable biofuel service - especially for the difficult-to-decarbonize transportation sector "accountable for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think jatropha has some possible, however it requires to be the ideal material, grown in the best place, 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 lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% reduction of "cradle to grave" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is carrying out ongoing field studies to increase jatropha curcas yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included advantage, he imagines a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can truly improve the soil and farming lands, and secure them against any additional degeneration triggered by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar task's success still hinges on many aspects, not least the ability to acquire quality yields from the tree. Another crucial step, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production innovation that uses the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.

Back in Ghana, jOil is currently managing 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 describes that years of research study and advancement have led to varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were lacking more than a years ago.

"We were able to speed up the yield cycle, improve the yield range and improve the fruit-bearing capacity of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our first job is to broaden our jatropha plantation to 20,000 hectares."

Biofuels aren't the only application JOil is taking a look at. The fruit and its byproducts might be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal substitute (essential 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 reopened 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 believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "We think 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 nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can really be carbon neutral, environment-friendly and socially accountable depends upon 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 attaining high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian government announced its intention to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels push that has actually stirred dispute over potential consequences. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is currently in deep difficulty, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

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

Other researchers chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an environmentally benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other researchers remain doubtful of the ecological practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it potentially becomes so successful, that we will have a great deal of associated land-use modification," 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 performed research on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use issues associated with growth of different crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not deal with the economic sector doing whatever they want, in terms of creating environmental issues."

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as a low-cost and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses may be well matched to regional contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains concerned about possible environmental costs.

He suggests restricting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in truly poor soils in requirement of repair. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in extremely sterilized wastelands," he describes. "That's the only method I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest recovery method for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved issues are greater than the potential advantages."

Jatropha's international future stays uncertain. And its potential as a tool in the battle against climate modification can only be opened, say many specialists, by avoiding the litany of difficulties associated with its very first boom.

Will jatropha projects that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian thinks its role as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" and that the resurgence is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry 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 by means of Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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

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