Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb 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 locations could 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 state the concept could be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts consisting of increasing food prices.

The research has actually 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 harsh conditions consisting of exceptionally dry deserts.

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

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

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

“There was great development, an excellent response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The scientists state that a crucial aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.

They are hoping to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short-term service to environment modification.

“I believe it is a great concept because we are truly extracting carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is completely various between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide via 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 presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, supplying an economic return.

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

But other experts in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But numerous of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the fantastic, green hope the reality was extremely different.

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

“But there are frequently individuals who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t 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 concept.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to handle 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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