Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an efficient way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But state the concept might be have unpredicted, unfavorable impacts including increasing food prices.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is extremely well adapted to severe conditions consisting of extremely 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 study, German researchers showed that one hectare of jatropha could record as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their 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 good growth, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he stated.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.

The scientists say that a critical element of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This implies that at first, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are hoping to develop bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short-term option to climate change.

“I think it is a great idea since we are actually drawing out co2 from the atmosphere – and it is entirely different between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s computations the costs of suppressing 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 nations are currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

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

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

But other specialists in this area are not convinced. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But many of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when 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 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 minimal.”

She pointed out that jatropha is highly hazardous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with an issue these people 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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