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 an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the concept is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics state the idea might be have unexpected, negative impacts including increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is really well adapted to harsh conditions including very dry 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 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 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 great development, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.

The researchers state that a crucial aspect of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are hoping to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term solution to climate change.

“I think it is an excellent concept because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is entirely different between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the costs 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 techniques, 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 released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for say the researchers, supplying an economic return.

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

But other specialists in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the terrific, green hope the reality was extremely various.

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

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

She mentioned that jatropha is extremely toxic 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 enter and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t really cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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