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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 say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an efficient method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the concept might be have unexpected, negative impacts including driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is effectively adapted to severe conditions consisting of extremely dry deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha could record as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their price 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 good development, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.

The scientists state that a vital aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This means that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, brief term solution to climate modification.

“I believe it is a great idea due to the fact that we are truly drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is completely different between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the costs of curbing co2 via the planting of trees would be in between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A number of nations are currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

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

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

But other professionals in this location are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the fantastic, green hope the truth was extremely various.

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

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

She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with an issue these people didn’t really trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.