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 great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an effective way of of CO2.

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

But critics say the concept could be have unanticipated, negative impacts consisting of driving up food costs.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is extremely well adapted to harsh conditions including 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 research study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha might capture as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists based their estimates on trees currently 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, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The researchers say that a crucial element of the strategy would be the availability of desalination facilities. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short-term solution to climate change.

“I believe it is a great idea due to the fact that we are actually extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is totally different between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the researcher’s computations the expenses of curbing co2 through 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 variety of countries are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the scientists, offering an economic return.

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

But other specialists in this area are not encouraged. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But numerous of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in coping with dry conditions.

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

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

“But there are often 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 toxic 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 massive plantations to deal with a problem these individuals didn’t really cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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