Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb 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 could be an effective way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the idea could be have unexpected, negative impacts including driving up food rates.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is extremely well adapted 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 scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha could catch approximately 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 results are frustrating,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was great development, a great response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

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

The scientists state that an important aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This implies that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wishing to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, brief term option to environment change.

“I believe it is a good idea due to the fact that we are actually extracting co2 from the environment – and it is totally various between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s estimations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide 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 presently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

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

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

But other professionals in this location 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 very successful in managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the terrific, green hope the truth was very different.

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

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

She explained that jatropha is extremely poisonous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these enormous plantations to handle a problem these people didn’t in fact cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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