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 large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the idea could be have unexpected, negative impacts including increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is effectively adapted to extreme conditions consisting of exceptionally dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha might catch as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees presently 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, a great response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the beginning,” he stated.

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

The researchers state that a vital aspect of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This means that at first, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are hoping to establish bigger 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 might be a good, short term solution to environment change.

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

According to the researcher’s computations the costs of suppressing co2 by means of 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 number of nations are currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel state the scientists, providing a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this location are not persuaded. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, as the plants were not extremely successful in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was extremely different.

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

“But there are typically people who require limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t 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 concerns about the fairness of the idea.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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