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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 great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas might be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics say the idea could be have unanticipated, unfavorable effects consisting of increasing food costs.

The research 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 extremely well adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of exceptionally arid deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha could record approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was excellent growth, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

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

The scientists state that a vital 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 intending to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short-term service to environment modification.

“I believe it is a great idea due to the fact that we are really drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is entirely various in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the researcher’s computations 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 countries are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 but 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, supplying a financial return.

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

But other specialists in this location are not encouraged. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals 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 managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when viewed as the great, green hope the truth was extremely different.

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

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

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

“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn’t actually cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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