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 areas might be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics say the idea could be have unpredicted, unfavorable impacts including increasing food rates.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adjusted to severe conditions consisting of extremely arid deserts.

It is already 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 scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their estimates 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 great development, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

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

The scientists state that an important element of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.

They are hoping to develop larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short-term option to climate change.

“I think it is a good idea due to the fact that we are actually extracting carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is entirely different in between extracting and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s calculations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide by means of the planting of trees would be in 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 number of countries are currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

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

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

But other specialists in this location are not convinced. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But much of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when seen as the excellent, green hope the reality was very different.

“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a miracle 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 area – we wouldn’t class the land as minimal.”

She pointed out that jatropha is extremely harmful and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to handle a problem these people didn’t really cause?”

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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