Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists say that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the idea is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics state the concept could be have unexpected, unfavorable impacts including driving up food rates.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is really well adapted to harsh conditions consisting of incredibly dry deserts.

It is currently grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world due to the fact that its seeds can produce oil.

In this study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha could catch up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide 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, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists say that a critical component of the plan would be the schedule of desalination centers. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.

They are wishing to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, short-term service to climate modification.

“I believe it is a good idea since we are really drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is completely various in between extracting and preventing.”

According to the researcher’s computations the expenses of curbing co2 via 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 variety of countries are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only takes in CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, offering a financial return.

“Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.

But other experts in this area are not convinced. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the fantastic, green hope the reality was very different.

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

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

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

“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to handle a problem these people didn’t in fact trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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