Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations might be a reliable way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics say the concept might be have unanticipated, negative impacts consisting of increasing food rates.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central and is extremely well adapted to harsh conditions consisting of extremely dry deserts.

It is currently 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 could record approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees presently 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 good growth, a great response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting 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 vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists state that a vital aspect of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.

They are intending to develop larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short term service to climate modification.

“I believe it is an excellent idea since we are really drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is completely different in between extracting and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s computations the expenses of suppressing co2 by means of the planting of trees would be in between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other techniques, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A variety of nations are currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

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

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

But other professionals in this location are not encouraged. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when viewed as the excellent, green hope the truth was very different.

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

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

She explained that jatropha is extremely toxic and can contaminate 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 go in and grow these huge plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t in fact cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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