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 state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert might be an effective way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed „carbon farming“, researchers state the concept is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.

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

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is effectively adapted to severe conditions consisting of incredibly 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 scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha could record up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

„There was great development, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much larger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the start,“ 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 20 year period.

The researchers state that a vital element of the strategy would be the availability of desalination facilities. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.

They are wishing to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short-term solution to climate change.

„I think it is a great concept because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is entirely various in between drawing out and avoiding.“

According to the scientist’s computations the costs of curbing co2 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 countries are presently trialling this technology, external but 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 collected for biofuel say the researchers, providing a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this area 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 extremely effective in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once viewed as the excellent, green hope the truth was really various.

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

„But there are frequently individuals who need limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t class the land as limited.“

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

„It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to deal with an issue these people didn’t actually cause?“

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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