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 areas could be an efficient way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed « carbon farming », researchers say the idea is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics say the idea might be have unforeseen, unfavorable effects consisting of driving up food costs.

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 extremely well adapted to extreme conditions including very dry deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture approximately 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, » said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

« There was good growth, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start, » 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 twenty years duration.

The scientists say that a critical component of the plan would be the availability of desalination facilities. This implies that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.

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

« I think it is a great concept since we are really extracting co2 from the atmosphere – and it is entirely different between drawing out and preventing. »

According to the researcher’s calculations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be in 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 nations are currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only takes in CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the scientists, offering a financial return.

« Jatropha is perfect to be developed into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel, » stated Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this area are not convinced. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals 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 really successful in dealing with dry conditions.

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

« When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land, » she stated.

« But there are typically people who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we wouldn’t class the land as marginal. »

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

« It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to deal with 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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