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 say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an efficient way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics say the concept might be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects consisting of driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is very well adapted to extreme conditions consisting of extremely arid deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha could record up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their price quotes 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, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

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

The researchers state that a crucial component of the plan would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.

They are hoping to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, brief term service to climate modification.

“I believe it is a great concept since we are actually drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is entirely different in between extracting and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s computations the expenses of suppressing co2 by means of 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 nations are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, supplying an economic return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But numerous 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 manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was very different.

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

“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 minimal.”

She mentioned 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 go in and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t actually cause?”

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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