Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

Share

close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

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

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

But say the idea might be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects consisting of increasing food rates.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is extremely well adjusted to severe conditions consisting of very arid 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 showed that one hectare of jatropha could catch approximately 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 results are overwhelming,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was great growth, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

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

The researchers state that a critical component of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are wanting to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short-term option to climate change.

“I believe it is a great concept since we are really extracting co2 from the environment – and it is completely various in between extracting and preventing.”

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

A variety of countries are presently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, providing a financial return.

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

But other specialists in this location are not encouraged. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the terrific, green hope the reality was really different.

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

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

She pointed out that jatropha is highly harmful and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t in fact cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

More on this story

‘Carpets of seaweed’ grown for fuel. Video, 00:03:05’Carpets of seaweed’ grown for fuel

1 July 2013

Biofuels are ‘unreasonable technique’

Published

15 April 2013

Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

The BBC is not accountable for the material of external websites.