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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 correspondent, BBC News
Scientists say 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 idea is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics say the concept could be have unforeseen, negative impacts consisting of increasing food rates.
The research has actually been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is really well adapted to extreme conditions consisting of exceptionally dry .
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 researchers showed that one hectare of jatropha might capture up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their price 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 great growth, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he said.
According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.
The researchers say that a crucial aspect of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This means that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.
They are intending to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short-term solution to environment change.
“I think it is a great concept because we are actually drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is completely different between extracting and preventing.”
According to the researcher’s computations the costs 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 variety of nations are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not only takes in CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel say the scientists, supplying an economic return.
“Jatropha is ideal to be turned into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this location are not encouraged. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But many of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in managing dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the excellent, green hope the truth was extremely different.
“When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land,” she said.
“But there are often people who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as minimal.”
She explained 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 concept.
“It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to handle a problem these people didn’t really cause?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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