Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

Share

close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

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

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

But critics state the idea could be have unexpected, negative effects consisting of increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is very well adjusted to harsh conditions consisting of exceptionally dry deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha might record as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was great development, an excellent action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The scientists say that a vital aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to .

They are intending to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term option to environment modification.

“I believe it is a great concept because we are really drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is entirely different in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the researcher’s calculations the costs of curbing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be in 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 countries are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the scientists, providing a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this location are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a lot of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the excellent, green hope the reality was very various.

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

“But there are often individuals who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we wouldn’t class the land as minimal.”

She explained that jatropha is highly toxic and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn’t actually trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

More on this story

‘Carpets of seaweed’ grown for fuel. Video, 00:03:05’Carpets of seaweed’ grown for fuel

1 July 2013

Biofuels are ‘irrational method’

Published

15 April 2013

Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

The BBC is not responsible for the material of external websites.