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

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

But critics say the concept could be have unanticipated, unfavorable effects including driving up food costs.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adapted to harsh conditions including incredibly dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might capture approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The their estimates on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

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

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

The scientists say that an important component of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This means that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are intending to develop bigger 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, brief term solution to climate change.

“I think it is a great concept since we are actually drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is entirely various between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s computations the expenses of suppressing co2 through the planting of trees would be 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 deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, providing an economic return.

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

But other specialists in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in handling dry conditions.

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

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

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

She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful 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 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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