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 might be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics say the idea might be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts including driving up food rates.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is extremely well adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of very arid 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 revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists based their quotes on trees presently 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 excellent development, an excellent action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The scientists say that an important component of the plan would be the schedule of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.

They are wanting to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term service to climate change.

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

According to the researcher’s calculations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be in between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other methods, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A number of nations are currently trialling this technology, external but 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 locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel state the researchers, offering an economic return.

“Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.

But other professionals in this area are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a lot of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in dealing with dry conditions.

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

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

“But there are typically people who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as marginal.”

She explained that jatropha is extremely harmful and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

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

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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