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 state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas might be a reliable method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the idea is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.
But critics state the idea could be have unpredicted, negative effects consisting of driving up food prices.
The research has actually been released, 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 harsh conditions including incredibly arid deserts.
It is already grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world due to the fact that its seeds can produce oil.
In this study, German scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha could catch approximately 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their estimates 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 excellent growth, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.
According to the researchers 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 period.
The scientists say that an important aspect of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.
They are wishing to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short term solution to climate modification.
“I believe it is a great concept because we are actually extracting co2 from the environment – and it is totally different in between drawing out and preventing.”
According to the researcher’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 methods, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).
A variety of countries are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel say the researchers, offering an economic return.
“Jatropha is perfect to be turned into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this location are not encouraged. 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 ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely effective in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was really different.
“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land,” she said.
“But there are typically people who require limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we would not class the land as minimal.”
She mentioned that jatropha is extremely harmful 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 go in and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn’t actually trigger?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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