Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting great deals of in desert locations might be a reliable way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

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

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is very well adapted to severe conditions including very dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha might catch as much as 25 tonnes of co2 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 results are overwhelming,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

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

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists say that an important element of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This implies that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wanting to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, brief term solution to climate modification.

“I think it is a good concept because we are really drawing out co2 from the atmosphere – and it is entirely various in between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the expenses of suppressing co2 through 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 number 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 areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, offering an economic return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But numerous of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when seen as the excellent, green hope the truth was very various.

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

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

She explained that jatropha is extremely harmful and can contaminate 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 go in and grow these massive plantations to handle an issue 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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