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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 state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an efficient way of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the concept is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.
But critics state the idea might be have unpredicted, negative effects including increasing food costs.
The research study has actually been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of change
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is very well adapted to severe conditions consisting of very dry deserts.
It is already grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world due to the fact that its seeds can produce oil.
In this research study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
“The results are frustrating,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
“There was great development, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.
The researchers state that a crucial element of the plan would be the schedule of desalination centers. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.
They are intending to develop larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short-term option to environment modification.
“I think it is a good concept because we are truly extracting co2 from the environment – and it is completely different in between extracting and avoiding.”
According to the researcher’s calculations the expenses of suppressing 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 currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel say the scientists, providing an economic return.
“Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.
But other experts in this area are not persuaded. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the great, green hope the truth was very different.
“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she said.
“But there are often people who require minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we would not class the land as marginal.”
She mentioned that jatropha is highly hazardous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the idea.
“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to deal with an issue these people didn’t in fact trigger?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related internet links
Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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