Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists say that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the idea could be have unexpected, unfavorable effects including driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is extremely well adapted to extreme conditions consisting of incredibly 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 study, German scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide 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 overwhelming,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was excellent development, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger 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 soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The researchers state that a crucial aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

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

“I believe it is a good idea because we are really drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is entirely various in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s computations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide through 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 nations are currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

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

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

But other experts in this location are not convinced. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in handling dry conditions.

is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the fantastic, green hope the truth was really various.

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

“But there are often individuals who need 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 extremely toxic and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn’t in fact cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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