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 method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics state the idea could be have unforeseen, negative effects consisting of increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is extremely well adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of extremely arid deserts.

It is currently 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 could catch as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The scientists based their quotes on trees presently 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 great development, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 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 vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The scientists say that an important element of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are hoping to develop larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short-term option to climate modification.

“I think it is an excellent concept due to the fact that we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is totally different between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s computations the expenses of suppressing co2 through 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 currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, providing an economic return.

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

But other experts in this area are not encouraged. They point to the fact 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 coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was extremely various.

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

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

She pointed out that jatropha is and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn’t in fact trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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