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Earlier this century, jatropha was hailed as a "wonder" biofuel. A simple shrubby tree belonging to Central America, it was wildly promoted as a high-yielding, drought-tolerant biofuel feedstock that might grow on abject lands throughout 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 resulted in plantation failures almost all over. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by allegations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.

Today, some researchers continue pursuing the incredibly elusive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A return, they say, is dependent on splitting the yield problem and dealing with the hazardous land-use issues intertwined with its original failure.

The sole staying big 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 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 native to Central America, was planted throughout the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its promise 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 advancement, the sole remaining large plantation concentrated on growing jatropha remains in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha return is on.

"All those companies 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 is a part of the process that was missed [throughout the boom]," jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian informed Mongabay in an interview.

Having learned from the errors of jatropha's past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, lowering transport carbon emissions at the global level. A brand-new boom could bring additional advantages, with jatropha likewise a possible source of fertilizers and even bioplastics.

But some researchers are skeptical, keeping in mind that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They warn that if the plant is to reach complete capacity, then it is necessary to find out from previous errors. During the very 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 also suggest that jatropha's tale provides lessons for scientists and entrepreneurs exploring promising new sources for liquid biofuels - which exist aplenty.

Miracle shrub, major bust

Jatropha's early 21st-century appeal came 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 purported virtues was an ability to thrive on abject or "marginal" lands; hence, it was claimed it would never ever take on 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 amazing; that can grow without excessive fertilizer, a lot of pesticides, or excessive need for water, that can be exported [as fuel] abroad, and does not take on food because it is toxic."

Governments, worldwide companies, investors and companies bought into the hype, launching efforts to plant, or pledge to plant, countless 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 got ready for WWF.

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

In 2009, a Pals of the Earth report from Eswatini (still understood at the time as Swaziland) cautioned that jatropha's high demands for land would undoubtedly bring it into direct conflict with food crops. By 2011, an international review kept in mind that "cultivation surpassed both clinical understanding of the crop's potential 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 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 began to stop working as expected yields refused to emerge. Jatropha might grow on degraded lands and endure drought conditions, as declared, however yields stayed poor.

"In my viewpoint, this combination of speculative financial investment, export-oriented capacity, and prospective to grow under fairly poorer conditions, created a huge issue," resulting in "undervalued 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 financial troubles, say experts. Accusations of land grabs, the conversion of food crop lands, and cleaning of natural locations were reported.

Studies found that land-use change for jatropha in nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Tanzania resulted in a loss of biodiversity. A research study from Mexico discovered 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 might never be recovered." In India, production showed carbon advantages, however 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 claim that the jatropha produced was located on limited land, however the idea of limited land is very evasive," explains Abubakari Ahmed, a speaker at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He studied the ramifications of jatropha plantations in the country over a number of years, and found that a lax definition of "minimal" suggested that presumptions that the land co-opted for jatropha plantations had actually been lying untouched and unused was frequently illusory.

"Marginal to whom?" he asks. "The truth that ... currently nobody is utilizing [land] for farming does not indicate that nobody is using it [for other functions] There are a lot of nature-based incomes on those landscapes that you may not always see from satellite imagery."

Learning from jatropha

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

"There was a boom [in investment], but unfortunately not of research, and action was taken based on alleged benefits of jatropha," states Bart Muys, a teacher in the Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2014, as the jatropha buzz was unwinding, Muys and associates published a paper pointing out essential lessons.

Fundamentally, he explains, there was an absence of knowledge about the plant itself and its needs. This important requirement for in advance research might be applied to other possible biofuel crops, he says. In 2015, 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 marginal land. But Muys's research revealed yields to be extremely variable, contrary to other reports. The group concluded that "pongamia still can not be thought about a significant and stable source of biofuel feedstock due to persisting understanding spaces." Use of such cautionary data could avoid inefficient financial speculation and careless land conversion for new biofuels.

"There are other extremely promising trees or plants that might act as a fuel or a biomass manufacturer," Muys says. "We wanted to prevent [them going] in the exact same direction of premature hype and fail, like jatropha."

Gasparatos underlines vital requirements that should be met before continuing with new biofuel plantations: high yields must be opened, inputs to reach those yields comprehended, and an all set market must be offered.

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

How biofuel lands are gotten is likewise essential, states Ahmed. Based upon experiences in Ghana where communally used lands were acquired for production, authorities need to ensure that "guidelines are put in location to examine how massive land acquisitions will be done and recorded in order to lower a few of the issues we observed."

A jatropha return?

Despite all these challenges, some scientists still think that under the right conditions, jatropha might be a valuable biofuel option - particularly for the difficult-to-decarbonize transport sector "accountable for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions."

"I think jatropha has some potential, but it needs to be the ideal product, grown in the ideal 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 method that Qatar might decrease airline company carbon emissions. According to his price quotes, its usage as a jet fuel could lead to about a 40% reduction of "cradle to tomb" emissions.

Alherbawi's team is conducting ongoing field research studies to boost jatropha yields by fertilizing crops with sewage sludge. As an added advantage, he imagines a jatropha green belt spanning 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) in Qatar. "The implementation of the green belt can really boost the soil and agricultural lands, and protect them versus any further deterioration brought on by dust storms," he says.

But the Qatar job's success still hinges on many aspects, not least the capability to get quality yields from the tree. Another important step, Alherbawi discusses, is scaling up production innovation that uses the whole 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) working with more than 400 farmers. Subramanian explains that years of research study and development have actually resulted in ranges of jatropha that can now achieve the high yields that were lacking more than a years earlier.

"We were able to accelerate the yield cycle, improve the yield variety and boost the fruit-bearing capability of the tree," Subramanian states. In essence, he specifies, the tree is now domesticated. "Our 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 could be a source of fertilizer, bio-candle wax, a charcoal replacement (crucial in Africa where much wood is still burned for cooking), and even bioplastics.

But it is the transport sector that still beckons as the ideal 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 look for alternative fuels that would be emission friendly."

A complete jatropha life-cycle assessment has yet to be finished, but he thinks that cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions related to the oily plant will be "competitive ... These two elements - that it is technically suitable, and the carbon sequestration - makes it an extremely strong candidate for adoption for ... sustainable aviation," he says. "We believe any such expansion will happen, [by clarifying] the definition of degraded land, [allowing] no competitors with food crops, nor in any method endangering food security of any country."

Where next for jatropha?

Whether jatropha can genuinely be carbon neutral, environmentally friendly and socially responsible depends upon intricate elements, including where and how it's grown - whether, for example, its production model is based in smallholder farms versus industrial-scale plantations, state specialists. Then there's the nagging problem of accomplishing high yields.

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

Many past plantations in Ghana, cautions Ahmed, converted dry savanna woodland, which became bothersome for carbon accounting. "The net carbon was often unfavorable in most of the jatropha websites, since the carbon sequestration of jatropha can not be compared to that of a shea tree," he discusses.

Other researchers chronicle the "potential 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 potentially becomes so effective, that we will have a great deal 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 conducted research study on the possibilities of jatropha adding to a circular economy in Mexico.

Avila-Ortega points out past land-use problems connected with expansion of various crops, including oil palm, sugarcane and avocado: "Our police is so weak that it can not cope with the economic sector doing whatever they desire, in terms of developing ecological issues."

Researchers in Mexico are currently checking out jatropha-based animals feed as a low-priced and sustainable replacement for grain. Such usages might be well matched to local contexts, Avila-Ortega concurs, though he remains concerned about prospective environmental expenses.

He suggests restricting jatropha growth in Mexico to make it a "crop that dominates land," growing it only in genuinely bad soils in need of restoration. "Jatropha could be among those plants that can grow in very sterile wastelands," he explains. "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 possible benefits."

Jatropha's worldwide future stays unpredictable. And its possible as a tool in the fight against environment change can only be unlocked, say many professionals, by preventing the list of problems connected with its very 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 "imminent" which the return is on. "We have strong interest from the energy industry now," he says, "to team up with us to establish and expand 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 primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world effects

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