Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2

Desert 'carbon farming' to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists state that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be a reliable method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers state the concept is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics say the idea might be have unforeseen, unfavorable effects including increasing food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of very dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

"The results are frustrating," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

"There was excellent growth, a good action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting 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 3 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 researchers say that a critical component of the strategy would be the availability of desalination facilities. This indicates that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are intending to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short term option to environment change.

"I believe it is a good idea because we are actually extracting co2 from the environment - and it is entirely different in between drawing out and preventing."

According to the researcher's calculations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide 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 but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only takes in CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be gathered for biofuel state the researchers, supplying an economic return.

"Jatropha is perfect to be become biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this location are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very effective in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the fantastic, green hope the truth was very various.

"When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she said.

"But there are typically individuals who need limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we wouldn't class the land as limited."

She mentioned that jatropha is highly hazardous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

"It is still someone else's land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to deal with a problem these individuals didn't in fact cause?"

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