Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

correspondent, BBC News

Scientists say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas could be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed « carbon farming », researchers state the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics state the idea could be have unexpected, negative impacts consisting of driving up food prices.

The research study has actually been published, 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 including exceptionally arid deserts.

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

In this research study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha could catch as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their estimates on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

« The outcomes are overwhelming, » stated 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 attempting 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 three percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The researchers say that an important element of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wanting to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short-term service to environment change.

« I think it is a great idea due to the fact that we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is completely different in between drawing out and avoiding. »

According to the scientist’s computations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide through 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 number of nations are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, supplying an economic return.

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

But other professionals in this location are not convinced. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the excellent, green hope the reality was really various.

« When jatropha was presented it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land, » she said.

« But there are often individuals who need limited 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 likewise had issues about the fairness of the concept.

« It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t actually trigger? »

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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