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

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

But critics say the idea might be have unpredicted, negative impacts including driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is effectively adapted to severe conditions including very dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha could catch approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was excellent growth, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much bigger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

According to the scientists 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 scientists state that a critical component of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.

They are wishing to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short term solution to environment modification.

“I think it is a good idea since we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is completely various between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s computations the costs of curbing carbon dioxide 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 currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel say the scientists, offering a financial return.

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

But other experts in this location are not encouraged. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But numerous of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in handling dry conditions.

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

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

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

She explained that jatropha is extremely harmful and can 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 massive plantations to deal with a problem these individuals 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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