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

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the idea is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics state the concept could be have unpredicted, negative impacts including increasing food rates.

The research study has been released, 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 severe conditions consisting of extremely arid 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 research study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha might capture up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The scientists based their quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was great development, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem 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 three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The researchers say that a crucial element of the strategy would be the availability of desalination facilities. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.

They are hoping to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, brief term solution to environment change.

“I think it is an excellent idea because we are truly drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is totally various in between extracting and preventing.”

According to the scientist’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 methods, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

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

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel say the researchers, offering 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 reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in with dry conditions.

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

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

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

She explained that jatropha is extremely toxic and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to deal with an issue these people didn’t actually trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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