Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the concept is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics state the concept could be have unexpected, negative impacts including increasing food rates.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in and is effectively adapted to extreme conditions including extremely arid deserts.

It is currently 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 record up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was good development, a good 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 take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The scientists state that a vital element of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This indicates that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.

They are intending to develop bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short-term option to climate change.

“I believe it is an excellent idea due to the fact that we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is completely various between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s calculations the costs of curbing co2 via the planting of trees would be in 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 variety of countries are currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 but 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 scientists, providing a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not persuaded. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But numerous of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in coping with dry conditions.

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

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

“But there are typically 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 pointed out that jatropha is extremely harmful 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 go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with a problem these people didn’t actually cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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