Fuel from worthless weeds?

Published on Friday, 08 July 2011 09:06

	By Robin Whitlock Follow @RobinWhitlock66

Could Jatropha be the world’s new source of environmentally acceptable biodiesel?

As the world begins to suffer from depletion of oil and gas reserves, not to mention the added problems with climate change, increasing attention is being given to biofuels but not without a great deal of controversy.

At first sight, biofuel and specifically oil derived from various plant sources, appears to be attractive as a means of weaning the world’s nations off conventional oil and gas. However, there are a series of important objections, not least the fact that development of biofuel crops - soya, corn, sorghum etc. - tends to divert resources away from agricultural production. In short, development of biofuel can threaten food supply and this is a particularly pernicious problem in those countries that are already suffering from food shortages and deterioration of agricultural land. Bluntly, biofuels means competition between people and industry, particularly transport.

George Monbiot has noted that biofuels intended for the UK transport system would have to be grown on some 25.9 million hectares of land when there is only 5.7 million hectares of arable land available. It is clear then that some biofuel would have to be imported from abroad which of course adds to the problem of transport-based carbon emissions before the biofuel has even got here. With regards to the effects of biofuels on food production, corn-based ethanol has already been widely attacked following rises in global food prices and the discovery of various adverse environmental effects. Oil palm and soya have been shown to add to deforestation, despite claims from governments that they can manage these problems. In some ways it is actually quite ironic that biofuels grown on land cleared of rainforest are being cited as solutions to carbon emissions when virgin rainforest and trees in general are much more effective as they draw CO2 directly from the atmosphere. In addition to the effects on climate, clearance of land for biofuels also means destruction of valuable habitat. An example of this is the threat to orang-utans in Borneo from palm oil production which may yet render the species extinct.

In recent years however, increased interest has been expressed in Jatropha, a highly toxic weed which grows on soils thought to be otherwise unsuitable for agricultural use. Could this be the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biofuels industry?

Jatropha is a fast growing and pernicious weed which grows in poor soils on wasteland in tropical and subtropical climates. It can survive for up to fifty years and produces oil in its second year of growth. It is highly resistant to pests and has been thought to be drought resistant with examples surviving for three years in dry conditions. The seeds contain 40 percent oil content which can be processed into a high quality biodiesel for use in diesel engines and generators without the need for refining. The residue, known as press cake, can be used in power plants as biomass feedstock or as fertiliser, since it contains potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus. It has been claimed that Jatropha can yield four times as much oil as soybean, per hectare, and ten times as much as corn.

There is special interest in Jatropha among car manufacturers and within the airline industry. Researchers at Daimler Chrysler Research for example have noted that the plant “already fulfills the EU norm for biodiesel quality". Bayer, CropScience and Daimler AG are planning to develop it as a biofuel while Air New Zealand have already used it successfully in one of its Boeing 747’s. Other airlines have also run tests notably Continental Airlines of Houston, USA. In 2007 Goldman Sachs identified Jatropha as ‘one of the best candidates for biofuel production’. In the same year BP engaged with British biofuels company D1 Oils in a £80 million project to cultivate the plant in India, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa. However, this project is not without its critics as shall be seen.

In response to the demand, numerous developing countries have started to jump aboard the Jatropha ‘gold rush’. In 2005 Myanmar announced that it would actively pursue the use of Jatropha oil with 50,000 acres being set aside within three years for Jatropha cultivation. Swaziland has been working on the construction of a Jatropha-fuelled power station. European and Indian companies have been buying land in Africa for Jatropha cultivation and the plant now grows either side of railway lines in Delhi and Bombay. The Indian ‘Centre for Jatropha Promotion & Biodiesel’ (CJP) now regularly holds events and D1 Oils is growing the plant on 430,000 acres of land it has bought in India and also has plantations in West Java, Indonesia.

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Yet all is not what it seems. Friends of the Earth Ghana rallied against western biofuels companies in 2009, challenging African leaders to resist attempts to use Jatropha based fuels at the expense of agriculture.

“The time has come for our political leaders, to make a firm decision on moves by the advanced countries, to scramble for so called marginal lands for the cultivation of Jatropha and other crops for bio fuel.” FoE Ghana’s chairman, Mr Nnimmo Bassey, said. The group believes that biofuels, including Jatropha, grown on marginal land, will deepen the continent’s existing environmental and social crises particularly food and water shortages, poverty and land rights issues. Mr Bassey cited the example of Swaziland where farmers were encouraged to grow the plant believing that it does not need plenty of water but subsequently discovered this to be a myth. He was joined by Ms Cheryl Agyepong, FoE Ghana’s Programme Coordinator who stated that the popular notion that Africa and Asia had vast marginal lands suitable for Jatropha cultivation was simply not true. FoE has found that the BP-D1 Oils Jatropha project in Swaziland has taken land away from food crops in a country already stricken by food shortages.

The idea that Jatropha only requires minimal watering has been demolished by various studies, particularly that conducted by the University of Twente in the Netherlands published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2009 which found that Jatropha needs five times the amount of water per unit of energy as sugarcane and corn. Co-author Arjen Hoekstra said after publication that “the claim that Jatropha doesn't compete for water and land with food crops is complete nonsense." He further stated that although it’s true that the plant is drought resistant it still needs good growing conditions in order to flourish, just like other plants. "If there isn't sufficient water, you get a low amount of oil production," Hoekstra maintains. The research team found that in the areas for which figures regarding Jatropha were available, particularly India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Brazil and Guatemala, the plant requires at least 20,000 litres of water per litre of biodiesel produced.

According to Chris Somerville, Director of the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of California, the scramble for Jatropha was primarily a response to EU biofuel mandates which were subsequently reduced in 2008 specifically because of the various environmental concerns. He believes that biodiesel demand will eventually decline in the face of much higher yields from cellulosic ethanol but that it may continue to fill a niche.