Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

farming’ to suppress 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 method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the concept is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics say the idea could be have unforeseen, negative effects including driving up food rates.

The research 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 effectively adjusted to severe conditions consisting of extremely dry deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might catch as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

“The outcomes are frustrating,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was excellent development, an excellent response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he stated.

According to the scientists 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 20 year duration.

The researchers state that a crucial element of the strategy would be the availability of desalination facilities. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are intending to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, short-term service to environment modification.

“I believe it is an excellent idea due to the fact that we are really extracting co2 from the atmosphere – and it is completely various between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s computations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide by means of 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 but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, offering an economic return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But many of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in coping with dry conditions.

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

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

“But there are frequently people who require limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we wouldn’t class the land as limited.”

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

“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to handle a problem these people 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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