Desert ’carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ’carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

Share

close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed ”carbon farming”, scientists state the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics state the idea could be have unforeseen, unfavorable effects consisting of increasing 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 extremely well adapted to extreme conditions including very 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 showed that a person of jatropha could catch as much as 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,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

”There was good growth, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

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

The researchers state that a critical component of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This implies that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.

They are intending to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term option to environment modification.

”I think it is an excellent idea since we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is entirely different between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the costs of suppressing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be 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 countries are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel state the researchers, supplying an economic return.

”Jatropha is perfect to be become biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.

But other professionals in this location are not convinced. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But numerous of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor 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 marginal land,” she stated.

”But there are often individuals who require limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as minimal.”

She pointed out that jatropha is extremely hazardous and can contaminate 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 handle an issue these people didn’t in fact trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

More on this story

’Carpets of seaweed’ grown for fuel. Video, 00:03:05’Carpets of seaweed’ grown for fuel

1 July 2013

Biofuels are ’unreasonable technique’

Published

15 April 2013

Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

The BBC is not responsible for the material of external sites.