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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "miracle" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was extremely promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that could grow on degraded lands across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

A jatropha rush ensued, 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 after-effects of the jatropha crash was polluted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.

Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive guarantee of high-yielding jatropha. A resurgence, they say, depends on cracking the yield problem and addressing the hazardous land-use concerns linked with its original failure.

The sole remaining large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner declares high-yield domesticated ranges have actually been accomplished and a brand-new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback 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 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 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 remaining large plantation focused 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, adopted a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to advertise it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the procedure that was missed out on [during the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.

Having discovered from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he states the oily plant might yet play a crucial function as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transport carbon emissions at the worldwide level. A brand-new boom might bring additional benefits, with jatropha likewise a prospective source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are doubtful, noting 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 important to learn from previous mistakes. During the very first boom, jatropha plantations were obstructed not just by bad yields, however 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, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal stemmed from its guarantee as a "second-generation" biofuel, which are sourced from grasses, trees and other plants not stemmed from edible crops such as maize, soy or oil palm. Among its numerous purported virtues was a capability to prosper on degraded or "marginal" lands; thus, it was declared it would never ever complete with 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 appeared miraculous; that can grow without too much fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or too much demand for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not contend with food since it is toxic."

Governments, worldwide firms, financiers and companies purchased into the hype, introducing efforts to plant, or guarantee 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 got ready for WWF.

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

In 2009, a Friends of the Earth report from Eswatini (still known at the time as Swaziland) alerted that jatropha's high demands for land would indeed bring it into direct dispute with food crops. By 2011, a global review noted that "cultivation outmatched both clinical understanding of the crop's capacity along with an understanding of how the crop fits into existing rural economies and the degree to which it can flourish 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, only 1.19 million hectares (2.94 million acres) were growing by 2011. Projects and plantations began to fail as expected yields refused to materialize. Jatropha might grow on abject lands and tolerate dry spell conditions, as claimed, however yields remained bad.

"In my opinion, this combination of speculative investment, export-oriented potential, and potential to grow under reasonably poorer conditions, produced a huge problem," leading to "underestimated 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 economic problems, state experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural areas were reported.

Studies found that land-use modification for jatropha in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A study from Mexico discovered the "carbon payback" of jatropha plantations due to associated forest loss varied in between 2 and 14 years, and "in some situations, the carbon financial obligation may never ever be recovered." In India, production revealed carbon advantages, but using fertilizers resulted in increases 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 evasive," explains 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 discovered that a lax meaning of "minimal" 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 reality that ... currently nobody is using [land] for farming doesn't mean that nobody is utilizing it [for other functions] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you might not always see from satellite images."

Learning from jatropha

There are key lessons to be gained from the experience with jatropha, state analysts, which need to be observed when thinking about other auspicious second-generation biofuels.

"There was a boom [in investment], however regrettably not of research, and action was taken based upon alleged advantages 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 unwinding, Muys and associates released a paper mentioning essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he discusses, there was an absence of understanding about the plant itself and its requirements. This important requirement for in advance research study could be used to other potential biofuel crops, he states. Last year, for example, his group released a paper analyzing 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 showed yields to be highly variable, contrary to other reports. The team concluded that "pongamia still can not be considered a considerable and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to continuing understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary data could avoid inefficient monetary speculation and negligent land conversion for brand-new biofuels.

"There are other very appealing trees or plants that might function as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys states. "We wanted to avoid [them going] in the same direction of premature hype and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos highlights essential requirements that must be satisfied before continuing with brand-new biofuel plantations: high yields should be unlocked, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and a prepared market needs to be offered.

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

How biofuel lands are gotten is also crucial, states Ahmed. Based on experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were bought for production, authorities must guarantee that "standards are put in place to check how large-scale land acquisitions will be done and documented in order to decrease a few of the problems we observed."

A jatropha comeback?

Despite all these difficulties, some scientists still think that under the ideal conditions, jatropha could be an important biofuel option - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport 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 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 manner in which Qatar may lower airline company carbon emissions. According to his quotes, its use as a jet fuel could result in about a 40% decrease of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is performing continuous field research studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an included benefit, he imagines a jatropha green belt covering 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can actually boost the soil and agricultural lands, and safeguard them versus any additional degeneration triggered by dust storms," he states.

But the Qatar project's success still depends upon many factors, not least the ability to get quality yields from the tree. Another vital action, Alherbawi describes, is scaling up production technology that utilizes the totality of the jatropha fruit to increase processing performance.

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 advancement have actually led to varieties of jatropha that can now accomplish the high yields that were doing not have more than a decade back.

"We had the ability to speed up the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian says. In essence, he states, the tree is now domesticated. "Our very first project is to expand 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 replacement (essential 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 actually as soon as again resumed with the energy shift drive for oil business and bio-refiners - [driven by] the search for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A complete jatropha life-cycle evaluation has yet to be finished, however he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These 2 aspects - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it a really strong prospect for adoption for ... sustainable air travel," he says. "We believe any such expansion will occur, [by clarifying] the meaning of abject land, [permitting] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any nation."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, eco-friendly and socially responsible depends on complex elements, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production design is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, say experts. Then there's the unpleasant issue of accomplishing high yields.

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

Many past plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, transformed dry savanna woodland, which ended up being problematic for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was typically unfavorable in the majority of the jatropha websites, due to the fact that 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 scientists remain skeptical of the ecological practicality 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 change," 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 actually performed research on the possibilities of jatropha contributing to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega cites previous land-use problems connected with expansion of different crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our law enforcement is so weak that it can not handle the personal sector doing whatever they want, in terms of developing environmental problems."

Researchers in Mexico are presently exploring jatropha-based animals feed as an affordable and sustainable replacement for grain. Such uses might be well suited to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he stays concerned about prospective environmental costs.

He recommends restricting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that conquers land," growing it only in truly bad soils in need of repair. "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 associated problems are higher than the potential benefits."

Jatropha's international future stays unpredictable. And its prospective as a tool in the battle against climate modification can just be unlocked, state many professionals, by avoiding the list of difficulties associated with its first boom.

Will jatropha jobs that sputtered to a stop in the early 2000s be fired back up once again? Subramanian believes its function as a sustainable biofuel is "imminent" and that the resurgence 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 via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

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

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