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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 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 nearly everywhere. The after-effects of the jatropha crash was polluted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.

Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they say, is dependent on breaking 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 declares high-yield domesticated varieties have actually been attained and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this return falters, 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 throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its guarantee 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 failed.

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

"All those business that failed, adopted a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild ranges of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This belongs of the process that was missed out on [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview.

Having learned from the mistakes of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant could yet play a crucial role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A new boom might bring fringe benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are skeptical, noting 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 previous mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hindered not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, logging, and social issues in nations where it was planted, including Ghana, where jOil runs.

Experts likewise suggest that jatropha curcas's tale offers lessons for researchers and business owners exploring promising new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, significant 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 originated from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its several supposed virtues was a capability to flourish on degraded or "limited" lands; thus, it was declared it would never contend 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 appeared incredible; that can grow without too much fertilizer, too many pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not contend with food since it is dangerous."

Governments, global firms, financiers and business bought into the hype, launching efforts 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 miraculous 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 undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, a global review noted that "cultivation outmatched both clinical 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, only 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations started to stop working as expected yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and endure drought conditions, as declared, however yields remained bad.

"In my opinion, this mix of speculative investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under relatively poorer conditions, produced a huge issue," 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 environmental, social and financial difficulties, state experts. 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 countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania caused a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered the "carbon repayment" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss ranged in between two and 14 years, and "in some circumstances, the carbon financial obligation might never be recuperated." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, but making use of fertilizers led to boosts of soil and water "acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication."

"If you take a look at the majority of the plantations in Ghana, they claim that the jatropha produced was positioned on limited land, but the concept of limited 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 a number of years, and discovered that a lax meaning of "marginal" indicated that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had been lying unblemished and unused was frequently illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The fact that ... currently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming doesn't mean that no one 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 crucial lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state experts, which must be followed when thinking about other advantageous second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], however regrettably not of research study, and action was taken based on 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 mentioning essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was a lack of knowledge about the plant itself and its requirements. This vital requirement for upfront research study might be used to other potential biofuel crops, he states. In 2015, for instance, his group released a paper evaluating the yields of pongamia (Millettia pinnata), a "fast-growing, leguminous and multipurpose tree species" with biofuel promise.

Like jatropha, pongamia can be grown on degraded and limited land. But Muys's research study revealed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a substantial and stable 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 might work as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We wished to prevent [them going] in the very same direction of premature buzz and stop working, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights crucial requirements that must be met before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields need to be opened, inputs to reach those yields understood, and a ready market must be offered.

"Basically, the crop requires to be domesticated, or [scientific understanding] at a level that we know how it is grown," Gasparatos says. Jatropha "was almost undomesticated when it was promoted, which was so unusual."

How biofuel lands are acquired is likewise essential, says Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were purchased for production, authorities must guarantee that "standards are put in location to examine how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to minimize some of the issues we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

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

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

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

Alherbawi's team is conducting ongoing field studies to enhance jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he imagines a jatropha curcas green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The application of the green belt can truly improve the soil and farming lands, and safeguard them against any more deterioration triggered by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar project's success still depends upon many factors, not least the capability to obtain quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production innovation that utilizes the entirety of the jatropha fruit to increase processing efficiency.

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) dealing with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian describes that years of research study and advancement have actually resulted in varieties of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were doing not have more than a years earlier.

"We had the ability to accelerate the yield cycle, improve the yield range and enhance the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our first task is to expand 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 perfect biofuels application, according to Subramanian. "The biofuels story has as soon as again reopened with the energy transition drive for oil business and bio-refiners - [driven by] the look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A complete jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be finished, however he believes that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions associated with the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically appropriate, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "Our company believe any such expansion will take place, [by clarifying] the definition of abject land, [allowing] no competition with food crops, nor in any way threatening food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can truly be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends upon intricate elements, consisting of where and how it's grown - whether, for instance, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say specialists. Then there's the nagging issue of accomplishing high yields.

Earlier this year, the Bolivian federal government announced its intent to pursue jatropha plantations in the Gran Chaco biome, part of a nationwide biofuels press that has stirred debate over potential repercussions. The Gran Chaco's dry forest biome is already in deep problem, having actually been greatly deforested by aggressive agribusiness practices.

Many past plantations in Ghana, alerts Ahmed, transformed dry savanna forest, which became bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically negative 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 scientists chronicle the "potential of Jatropha curcas as an ecologically benign biodiesel feedstock" in Malaysia, Indonesia and India. But still other scientists remain uncertain of the environmental practicality of second-generation biofuels. "If Mexico promotes biofuels, such as the exploitation of jatropha, the rebound is that it possibly 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 conducted research on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out previous land-use problems related to growth of different crops, consisting of oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not cope with the private sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of developing environmental issues."

Researchers in Mexico are presently checking out jatropha-based livestock feed as an inexpensive and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega agrees, though he remains worried about prospective environmental costs.

He recommends limiting jatropha expansion in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it just in truly poor soils in requirement of remediation. "Jatropha could be one of those plants that can grow in very sterilized wastelands," he discusses. "That's the only way I would ever promote it in Mexico - as part of a forest healing method for wastelands. Otherwise, the involved issues are higher than the prospective advantages."

Jatropha's global future remains uncertain. And its possible as a tool in the battle against climate modification can only be opened, say lots of experts, by avoiding the litany of difficulties associated with its first boom.

Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a halt in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "impending" which the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry 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 through Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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

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