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 large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an efficient method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the concept is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics say the idea might be have unanticipated, unfavorable 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 extremely well adapted to extreme conditions consisting of very dry 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 revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their estimates 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 growth, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The researchers state that a crucial aspect of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.

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

“I believe it is an excellent concept due to the fact that we are truly drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is completely different in between extracting and preventing.”

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 strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

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

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the scientists, offering 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 encouraged. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But much of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when seen as the fantastic, green hope the reality was very various.

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

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

She mentioned that jatropha is extremely poisonous 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 somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these massive 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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