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 big numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the concept could be have unforeseen, negative effects including increasing food prices.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adjusted to severe conditions consisting of very 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 a person hectare of jatropha might catch up to 25 tonnes of co2 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,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

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

According to the researchers 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 twenty years duration.

The scientists say that an important aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This indicates that initially, 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 plans that simply balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short term solution to environment modification.

“I believe it is an excellent idea since we are truly extracting co2 from the atmosphere – and it is completely various in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the researcher’s computations the costs of suppressing co2 via the planting of trees would be 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 number of nations are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 however 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 scientists, providing a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this location are not persuaded. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the terrific, 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 stated.

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

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

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these enormous plantations to deal with a problem these individuals didn’t really trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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