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 state that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an effective method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the idea is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage jobs.

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

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is extremely well adapted to extreme conditions including exceptionally 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 price quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was excellent development, a good action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he stated.

According to the scientists a that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The researchers say that a vital element of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This means that at first, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.

They are wanting to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short term service to environment modification.

“I think it is a good concept since we are truly extracting carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is entirely different in between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s calculations the expenses of curbing co2 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 currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

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

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

But other specialists in this location are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But many of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once viewed as the great, green hope the truth was extremely various.

“When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she said.

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

She mentioned that jatropha is highly poisonous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t actually cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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