Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
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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 areas could be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers state the idea is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics state the idea could be have unexpected, negative impacts consisting of driving up food rates.
The research study has 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 adapted to extreme conditions consisting of incredibly arid deserts.
It is currently 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 one hectare of jatropha might catch 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 .
"The outcomes are overwhelming," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was great development, an excellent response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much larger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the beginning," 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 20 year period.
The scientists say that an important component of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.
They are wishing to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, short-term solution to environment modification.
"I believe it is a great concept because we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - and it is completely different in between drawing out and preventing."
According to the researcher's estimations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide via the planting of trees would be in 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 harvested for biofuel state the researchers, offering a financial return.
"Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene - it is even much 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 much 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 supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the great, green hope the reality was extremely different.
"When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land," she said.
"But there are often people who need limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location - we would not class the land as marginal."
She mentioned that jatropha is extremely toxic and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the idea.
"It is still somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with 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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