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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 could be a reliable way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed ”carbon farming”, scientists state the concept is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics state the idea might be have unforeseen, negative effects consisting of driving up 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 extremely well adapted to extreme conditions consisting of extremely 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 scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha could record up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

”The outcomes are frustrating,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

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

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

The scientists say that a critical aspect of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This means that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wishing to develop bigger trials in of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, brief term option to climate change.

”I think it is a great idea because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is entirely various between extracting and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s calculations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide by means of 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 nations are currently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, providing a financial return.

”Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.

But other professionals 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, particularly in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective 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 great, green hope the reality was very different.

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

”But there are typically people who require limited 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 hazardous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

”It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with an issue these people didn’t really trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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