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 Weeding around Jatropha trees, courtsey D1 Oils First published in Infocus: Jatropha, a supplement to Cleantech magazine, May 2008, Copyright Cleantech Investor 2008 by Kua Harn Wei,Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
The latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Summary for Policymakers – was released in Paris in February 2007. It concluded that most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the increase in greenhouse gas production by human activities. Coupled with other concerns, such as the recent fluctuations in global oil prices and increasing significance of energy security and diversity, policymakers and scientists around the world are turning their attention to renewable energy resources to power their economies.
Renewable energy is also widely known as sustainable energy. This is because it is theoretically inexhaustible and, most importantly, believed to be able to contribute to ‘sustainable development’ – a term that first appeared in the famous 1987 report by the World Commission on Environment and Development. Defined originally as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, ‘sustainable development’ as a concept evolved considerably for the next ten years or so. Presently, it is commonly accepted as a desirable form of development in which the triple bottomlines of economy, environment and equity/society are addressed concurrently. Pitching this concept at a higher level, to ensure that any renewable energy resources genuinely contribute to sustainable development, policies and technology advancement supporting their growth must effectively address these triple bottomlines.
Developing jatropha is certainly no exception.
Jatropha is a multipurpose shrub that is native to tropical America but now thrives in many parts of the tropics and sub-tropics in Africa and Asia. Its branches, twigs, stems, fruits, nuts, exocarp shells, kernel, seed cake and oil can be utilised in a wide variety of ways after chemical/physical treatment – including as an animal feed and for soap making. Above all, jatropha captures the imagination of many for its potential as a source of biofuel. Studies have shown that after chemical treatment or blending/dilution with mineral diesel (the stuff that we use to power our cars today) to reduce its viscosity, jatropha oil can be used as fuel in diesel engines without modification. (To burn untreated oil in engines, the latter would have to be modified to accommodate the higher viscosity of the fuel.) Treated jatropha oil also has very similar energy content as mineral diesel. Since many species of jatropha are poisonous (which also makes them suitable as an ingredient of natural pesticides), they can be cultivated solely for fuel. This avoids the conflict of interest that may arise when profit-minded farmers prefer to cultivate a crop as a fuel for higher revenue instead of as a food. The fact that jatropha is hardy enough to grow in poor soil conditions and can withstand prolonged periods of limited rainfall implies that it can be used to reclaim degraded land not suitable for food crop agriculture; this can free up land for continuous food production and prevent competition with food crops that will result in escalating food prices. An example of how food prices are affected is maize. As a result of farmers in many parts of the United States raising the production of maize to cater to rising demand for ethanol as a fuel, maize prices have escalated to their highest in a decade. Is jatropha a wonder crop that can avoid all the negative outcomes experienced by its biofuel compatriots? How should an economy around jatropha be developed so that it truly contributes to sustainable development?
Sizeable rural communities in India and Indonesia benefit from the employment opportunities jatropha plantations provide. Local farmers are involved in growing, harvesting and a certain degree of processing of the plants. The fact that jatropha has many potential uses implies that, if its markets are established and the advantages over its competitors capitalised, jobs in the local communities will be diversified and even multiplied. Achieving this requires local government and investors to work closely together to promote jatropha products and control quality. Involvement by local government will also help to ensure tax policies that unfairly penalise the processing of raw materials are rectified.
However, business plans that maximise the profits of local farmers/producers may not be ideal for big firms investing in the jatropha business. For example, local producers who sell jatropha by-products from their backyards can earn higher profits, but investing firms may prefer to centralise the production for their own benefits. By way of illustration, the global animal feed and soap markets are estimated to be around 600 million and 3.4 million tons respectively. Any such discrepancy must be resolved in order to ensure a win-win situation for both parties. Nonetheless, given the high cost of processing jatropha oil into biofuel, it is more practical for investing firms to take charge of the processing while local farmers are responsible for the cultivation of the crops.
Even so, biofuel made from jatropha is still more expensive than mineral diesel. The facts that mineral diesel price is heavily subsidised and the environmental impacts that resulted from its production are not factored into its pricing are not going to change in the near future. Therefore, in order for jatropha to be more competitive in the energy market as a truly sustainable energy source, several strategies should be considered in tandem. First, the efficiency of the chemical processing should be improved. Secondly, in order to reduce transportation costs incurred by bringing harvested crops to processing sites, investing firms should consider setting up regional processing factories that cater to the demands of niche regional markets; a good example is the farm machinery market. This will in turn require processing machines to be modularised or even simplified in order to reduce the overall capital outlay for the investing firms. Thirdly, in the case of jatropha really becoming well-accepted, investing firms will consider widening its area of cultivation beyond degraded land. This may jeopardise biodiversity and/or create incentives to replace native forests or food crop plantations. Hence, government agencies and non-governmental organisations should participate in designing and implementing a holistic land management-cum-conservation policy within which the jatropha economy operates.
Within the academic community, lifecycle assessment (which can be further divided into techniques such as lifecycle costing) is a popular methodology for evaluating the environmental impact of a technology. For jatropha, such evaluations can be done with respect to factors such as energy consumption and pollutant production for all the discrete stages of growing, harvesting, transporting, processing and end-of-life disposal. It is worthwhile to apply this technique to jatropha and then compare the results to those obtained for other biofuel sources grown in a similar geopolitical context. These plants include oil palm, maize and sugar cane. This will help policymakers identify stages where environmental performances can be further improved and even decide on the energy crops in which to invest.
In summary, given its versatile nature, jatropha holds a great potential to promote sustainable development as both an energy crop and a valuable commodity. The technical and economic challenges limiting its current uses can be resolved using an integrated approach involving a series of policy strategies that must be coordinated with one another. More importantly, these concerted efforts will serve to outline opportunities for investing countries to benefit from the jatropha economy. Specifically, economies that do not have a local agriculture base may consider investing in the various aspects of the jatropha economy outlined above, while participating – financially and/or physically – in the assessment of the environmental impact of this unique agricultural sector. |
