Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
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Desert 'carbon farming' to curb 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 locations could be a reliable way of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists say the idea is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.
But critics say the concept could be have unforeseen, negative impacts including driving up food costs.
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 harsh conditions consisting of incredibly 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 researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
"The outcomes are frustrating," said 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 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 in Germany over a 20 year period.
The scientists say that a crucial element of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.
They are hoping to develop bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, brief term option to environment modification.
"I think it is a good idea since we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - and it is completely various in between extracting and preventing."
According to the scientist's calculations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide via 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 innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, providing a financial return.
"Jatropha is ideal to be turned into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.
But other experts in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the great, green hope the reality was very different.
"When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she stated.
"But there are typically 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 pointed out that jatropha is highly toxic and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.
"It is still someone else's land. Why go in and grow these enormous 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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