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 great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics state the concept could be have unpredicted, including driving up food costs.

The research study 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 severe conditions consisting of extremely 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 scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might catch up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere 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,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was great growth, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists say that an important component of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This implies that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, brief term solution to climate modification.

“I think it is an excellent concept because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is completely different between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s computations the costs of suppressing carbon dioxide through 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 variety of countries are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

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

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

But other specialists in this location are not encouraged. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But much of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the fantastic, green hope the truth was really different.

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

“But there are typically individuals who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t class the land as limited.”

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

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn’t in fact cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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