Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2
Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment reporter, BBC News
Scientists state that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the idea is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.
But critics say the concept could be have unexpected, unfavorable effects consisting of driving up food costs.
The research has been published, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is effectively adjusted to severe conditions consisting of exceptionally 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 showed that a person hectare of jatropha could record up to 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,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
“There was good development, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start,” he said.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.
The researchers say that an important component of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This indicates that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.
They are intending to develop bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short term solution to climate modification.
“I believe it is a great concept due to the fact that we are really drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is completely different in between drawing out and preventing.”
According to the scientist’s estimations the expenses of suppressing co2 through the planting of trees would be 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 countries are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the researchers, offering an economic return.
“Jatropha is perfect to be developed into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this area are not encouraged. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in dealing with dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the fantastic, green hope the truth was very different.
“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land,” she stated.
“But there are frequently people who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t class the land as marginal.”
She mentioned that jatropha is highly harmful and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise 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 in fact cause?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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