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 say that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the concept might be have unanticipated, negative effects consisting of increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that in Central America and is extremely well adapted to severe conditions including very 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 researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha could catch up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

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

“There was good development, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

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

The researchers say that a critical element of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This implies that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.

They are hoping to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short term service to environment modification.

“I believe it is an excellent idea due to the fact that we are truly extracting co2 from the environment – and it is entirely various between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s calculations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide 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 variety of countries are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the scientists, supplying a financial return.

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

But other experts in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once seen as the fantastic, green hope the truth was very various.

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

“But there are frequently individuals who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we would not class the land as marginal.”

She explained that jatropha is highly hazardous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to handle a problem these people didn’t actually cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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