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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations could be a reliable method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the idea is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics state the idea could be have unexpected, negative effects including driving up food costs.

The research study has actually been published, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is effectively adapted to extreme conditions including very arid deserts.

It is already grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world since its seeds can produce oil.

In this research study, German scientists revealed that one hectare of jatropha might catch as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

“The results are frustrating,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was excellent growth, an excellent response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The researchers state that a critical element of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are hoping to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, brief term solution to environment change.

“I believe it is an excellent concept since we are really extracting co2 from the environment – and it is totally various between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s calculations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A number of nations are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, supplying an economic return.

“Jatropha is perfect to be become biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this location are not persuaded. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was really different.

“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land,” she stated.

“But there are typically people who require marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we would not class the land as minimal.”

She that jatropha is extremely poisonous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn’t actually cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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