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 big numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics say the concept might be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects including increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of exceptionally arid deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record 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 outcomes are overwhelming,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was great development, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger 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 vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists state that an important element of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are wishing to develop bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short-term service to climate modification.

“I think it is a good concept since we are actually extracting co2 from the atmosphere – and it is completely different in between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s computations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide by means of 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 nations are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

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

“Jatropha is perfect to be become biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.

But other professionals in this area are not persuaded. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in handling dry conditions.

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

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

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

She pointed out that jatropha is extremely hazardous 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 enormous plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn’t really trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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