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 great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the concept is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics say the concept could be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects including driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of modification

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

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

In this study, German scientists revealed that one hectare of jatropha could record as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was good growth, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The scientists say that a vital component of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are intending to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short-term service to climate modification.

“I think it is an excellent concept because we are really drawing out co2 from the atmosphere – and it is entirely various in between extracting and preventing.”

According to the researcher’s calculations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide via the planting of trees would be 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 but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the scientists, providing a financial return.

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

But other experts in this area are not persuaded. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But many of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was really various.

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

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

She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful and can the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn’t really cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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