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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 method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the concept is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage jobs.
But critics say the concept could be have unexpected, negative impacts including driving up food costs.
The research study has actually been published, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of change
Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is effectively adapted to severe conditions including incredibly dry deserts.
It is currently grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world because its seeds can produce oil.
In this study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers 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 larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.
The scientists say that a vital aspect of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.
They are wanting to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short term service to environment modification.
“I think it is an excellent idea because we are really drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is totally various in between drawing out and avoiding.”
According to the scientist’s calculations 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 techniques, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).
A variety of countries are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the researchers, providing a financial return.
“Jatropha is perfect to be become biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.
But other specialists in this location are not convinced. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in dealing with dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once viewed as the great, green hope the truth was really various.
“When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land,” she stated.
“But there are often people who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we wouldn’t class the land as marginal.”
She mentioned that jatropha is highly toxic and can contaminate 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 go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with a problem these people didn’t actually cause?”
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Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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