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 great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an efficient way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed « carbon farming », scientists say the concept is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics say the idea might be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts consisting of driving up food costs.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is effectively adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of exceptionally dry 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 catch up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide 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 outcomes are frustrating, » stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

« There was excellent growth, an excellent action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start, » he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks 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 suggests that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.

They are wishing to 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 a good, short term solution to climate modification.

« I think it is an excellent idea since we are actually drawing out co2 from the atmosphere – and it is totally different in between extracting and preventing. »

According to the scientist’s computations the costs of curbing co2 through the planting of trees would be in 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 variety of nations are currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 however 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, offering a financial return.

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

But other specialists in this location are not persuaded. They point to the reality 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 successful in handling 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 introduced it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land, » she said.

« But there are often people who require minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we would not class the land as marginal. »

She mentioned that jatropha is highly hazardous and can pollute 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 enter and grow these huge plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn’t actually cause? »

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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