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Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2

Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an effective method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists state the concept is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics state the idea might be have unforeseen, negative effects including increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adapted to extreme conditions including exceptionally dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists revealed that one hectare of jatropha could record approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide 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," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

"There was excellent growth, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the beginning," he said.

According to the scientists 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 twenty years duration.

The researchers state that a critical component of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This implies that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are wanting to trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, short-term solution to climate change.

"I believe it is an excellent idea since we are actually drawing out co2 from the atmosphere - and it is completely different in between drawing out and avoiding."

According to the researcher's estimations the costs of suppressing co2 through the planting of trees would be 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 nations are currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel state the scientists, offering an economic return.

"Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene - it is even better than biodiesel," said Prof Becker.

But other experts in this area are not convinced. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a lot 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 manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was very various.

"When jatropha was presented it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she stated.

"But there are often individuals who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we wouldn't class the land as limited."

She mentioned that jatropha is extremely poisonous 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 someone else's land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn't really trigger?"

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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