Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

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

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is extremely well adapted to severe conditions consisting of incredibly arid deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists revealed that one hectare of jatropha might capture up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The their estimates on trees presently 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 great growth, a great response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger 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 take in all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.

The scientists say that a vital element of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This implies that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wishing to develop larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, brief term option to environment modification.

“I believe it is an excellent idea because we are truly drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is totally various between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s computations the costs of curbing carbon dioxide by means of 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 technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

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

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

But other professionals in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when seen as the great, green hope the truth was extremely different.

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

“But there are typically individuals who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not 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 likewise had issues about the fairness of the concept.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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