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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 correspondent, BBC News

Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an effective way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the idea could be have unforeseen, negative impacts including increasing food rates.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is really well adjusted to harsh conditions consisting of exceptionally 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 researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was excellent development, a good action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

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 period.

The researchers state that a critical component of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are hoping to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, brief term service to environment change.

“I think it is a great concept due to the fact that we are truly extracting co2 from the environment – and it is totally different in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s computations the costs of dioxide through the planting of trees would be 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 nations are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

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

“Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this area are not persuaded. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was really different.

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

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

She pointed out that jatropha is highly toxic and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t really trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.