Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics say the concept might be have unpredicted, negative impacts consisting of increasing food rates.

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 adjusted to harsh conditions consisting of extremely dry deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

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

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

The researchers say that a critical aspect of the plan would be the availability of desalination facilities. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.

They are intending to develop bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, brief term option to environment change.

“I think it is a great idea because we are truly drawing out co2 from the atmosphere – and it is entirely various between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be 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 nations are presently trialling this technology, external but 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 areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel state the scientists, supplying an economic return.

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

But other experts in this area are not convinced. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in dealing with dry conditions.

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

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

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

She explained that jatropha is highly toxic and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still someone 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 web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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