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 say that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be a reliable way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the idea is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.

But state the concept could be have unanticipated, negative impacts consisting of increasing food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is effectively adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of exceptionally 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 researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha could record up to 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 great development, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he stated.

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

The researchers state that a critical aspect of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This means that initially, 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 balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, short-term option to climate modification.

“I think it is a good concept since we are really extracting co2 from the atmosphere – and it is totally different in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the costs of curbing co2 via the planting of trees would be between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A number of countries are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

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

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

But other professionals in this location are not encouraged. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a lot of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the excellent, green hope the truth was extremely different.

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

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

She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with 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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