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

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the concept is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics say the idea could be have unforeseen, negative impacts consisting of driving up .

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is effectively adapted to extreme conditions including exceptionally dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha might catch as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists based their quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was good development, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The researchers state that a crucial component of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are hoping to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, brief term service to environment change.

“I think it is a great concept due to the fact that we are truly extracting co2 from the atmosphere – and it is entirely various in between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the expenses of curbing co2 by means of 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 countries are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations 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 much better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this location are not convinced. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when seen as the great, green hope the reality was very various.

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

“But there are typically individuals who need marginal 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 extremely poisonous 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 somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to deal with a problem these individuals didn’t actually trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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