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 areas might be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the idea might be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects including driving up food costs.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is effectively adapted to harsh conditions consisting of very arid deserts.

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

In this study, German scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees currently 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 excellent growth, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger 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 soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The researchers say that a vital aspect of the plan would be the of desalination facilities. This indicates that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.

They are hoping to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short term service to environment modification.

“I believe it is a great concept due to the fact that we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is completely different in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the researcher’s computations the costs of suppressing co2 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 variety of nations are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel state the researchers, providing an economic return.

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

But other experts in this area are not persuaded. They point to the truth 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 really effective in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once 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 limited land,” she stated.

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

She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful 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 someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn’t in fact cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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