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 large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the idea is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics say the idea could be have unexpected, unfavorable impacts including driving up food costs.

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 adapted to severe conditions consisting of exceptionally arid deserts.

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

In this study, German scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha might capture approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers 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 good development, an excellent response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the beginning,” he stated.

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 researchers say that a critical aspect of the plan would be the schedule of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined 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, brief term option to climate change.

“I think it is a great idea since we are actually extracting co2 from the atmosphere – and it is totally various in between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be in 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 presently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel state the researchers, supplying a financial return.

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

But other experts in this area are not convinced. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in coping with dry conditions.

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

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

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

She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful and can pollute 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 enter and grow these enormous plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn’t actually trigger?”

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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