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 state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations could be a reliable way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics say the concept might be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts including driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is effectively adapted to harsh conditions consisting of incredibly arid deserts.

It is currently grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world because its seeds can produce oil.

In this research study, German scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might capture as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The their price quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was excellent growth, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The scientists state that a crucial aspect of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This indicates that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.

They are wishing to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short-term solution to climate modification.

“I think it is a great concept because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is completely various between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s computations 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 techniques, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A number of countries are currently trialling this innovation, 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 harvested for biofuel say the researchers, providing an economic return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not persuaded. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when viewed as the fantastic, green hope the reality was very different.

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

“But there are often people who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as limited.”

She pointed out that jatropha is extremely harmful and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these enormous plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn’t actually cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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