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 might be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the idea is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics state the concept could be have unpredicted, unfavorable impacts consisting of driving up food costs.

The research has 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 harsh 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 scientists revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their price quotes on trees currently 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 development, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

According to the researchers 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 20 year period.

The researchers state that a critical aspect of the plan would be the availability of desalination facilities. This implies that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.

They are wishing to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short-term option to climate change.

“I believe it is a great idea because we are actually drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is totally different between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s estimations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide via 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 number of countries are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel state the researchers, supplying a financial return.

“Jatropha is ideal to be turned into biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But numerous of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in handling dry conditions.

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

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

“But there are frequently people who require marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we wouldn’t class the land as minimal.”

She explained that jatropha is extremely 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 somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t really cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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