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

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

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

The research 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 extreme conditions including very arid deserts.

It is currently 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 researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha might capture approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide 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 results are overwhelming,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

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

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

The state that an important component of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This means that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.

They are intending to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, brief term solution to environment change.

“I think it is a good idea since we are really extracting co2 from the environment – and it is totally various between extracting and preventing.”

According to the researcher’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 methods, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A number of nations are currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel state the scientists, offering a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this location are not persuaded. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But much of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in dealing with 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 great, green hope the reality was extremely different.

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

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

She pointed out that jatropha is highly harmful and can contaminate 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 massive plantations to deal with a problem these individuals didn’t in fact trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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