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 state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an efficient method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed «carbon farming», scientists say the idea is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics say the idea could be have unforeseen, unfavorable effects consisting of increasing food rates.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is extremely well adjusted to severe conditions consisting of incredibly 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 study, German researchers showed that one hectare of jatropha might catch approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists 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 excellent growth, a great action 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 said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The researchers say that a crucial aspect of the plan would be the availability of desalination facilities. This implies that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.

They are hoping to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, brief term service to environment modification.

«I think it is a great idea due to the fact that we are truly drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is completely different between extracting and avoiding.»

According to the scientist’s estimations the costs of curbing carbon dioxide by means of the planting of trees would be in 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 variety of nations are currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the scientists, providing a financial return.

«Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,» said Prof Becker.

But other experts in this area are not encouraged. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely 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 terrific, green hope the truth was very various.

«When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land,» she stated.

«But there are often individuals who require marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we would not class the land as marginal.»

She mentioned that jatropha is extremely poisonous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

«It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn’t really cause?»

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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