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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 correspondent, BBC News

Scientists state that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an efficient method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the concept is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics state the concept might be have unanticipated, negative effects including increasing food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is really well adapted to severe conditions consisting of extremely arid deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees currently 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 excellent development, a good action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the would soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists say that an important aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.

They are intending to develop bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short term solution to climate modification.

“I think it is an excellent concept since we are actually extracting co2 from the environment – and it is entirely various in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the costs of curbing 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 number of countries are currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the scientists, supplying a financial return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not encouraged. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when seen as the excellent, green hope the truth was really different.

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

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

She pointed out that jatropha is highly toxic and can pollute 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 enter and grow these massive plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn’t in fact cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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