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 state that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations might be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the concept is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics state the idea might be have unforeseen, unfavorable effects including increasing food prices.

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

Seeds of modification

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

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

In this study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might record approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their price quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

“The results 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 problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 by cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The scientists state that an important component of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.

They are wanting to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short-term option to climate change.

“I believe it is an excellent idea due to the fact that we are actually extracting co2 from the atmosphere – and it is totally various between extracting and preventing.”

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

Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the scientists, supplying a financial return.

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

But other experts in this location are not encouraged. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in dealing with dry conditions.

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

“When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she stated.

“But there are typically people who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we wouldn’t class the land as marginal.”

She explained that jatropha is highly poisonous 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 somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn’t in fact trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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