Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2

1 August 2013

Share

close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

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

But critics state the idea could be have unexpected, unfavorable impacts consisting of increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is effectively adapted to extreme conditions consisting of incredibly dry deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha could record as much as 25 tonnes of co2 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,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was great development, a great response 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 stated.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The researchers say that a crucial component of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This implies that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.

They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short term solution to environment modification.

“I believe it is an excellent idea because we are truly drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is entirely various between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s computations the costs of suppressing co2 via the planting of trees would be in between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A number of nations are currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

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

“Jatropha is perfect to be turned into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.

But other experts in this location are not convinced. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But many of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in managing .

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the excellent, green hope the reality was really different.

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

“But there are typically people who require minimal 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 concerns about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn’t actually 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 ‘irrational technique’

Published

15 April 2013

Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

The BBC is not accountable for the material of external websites.