Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an efficient way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the idea is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics state the concept could be have unforeseen, negative effects including driving up 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 extremely dry 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 research study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha could catch as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was great growth, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for example ten 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 cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The scientists say that an important element of the plan would be the availability of desalination facilities. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are wishing to establish larger 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 could be a great, short term solution to environment modification.

“I believe it is a good idea since we are truly drawing out co2 from the atmosphere – and it is completely various in between extracting and preventing.”

According to the scientist’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 techniques, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

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

Growing jatropha not only absorbs 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, providing a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not convinced. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 big 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 very successful in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once viewed as the fantastic, green hope the reality was really different.

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

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

She explained that jatropha is highly toxic and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues 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?”

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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