Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
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Desert 'carbon to curb CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment reporter, BBC News
Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists say the idea is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.
But critics say the idea might be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects including driving up food prices.
The research study 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 adapted to extreme conditions including exceptionally dry 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 researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha could record up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees presently 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 development, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he said.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.
The scientists state that a critical aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be restricted to seaside locations.
They are hoping to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short-term service to environment modification.
"I think it is a good idea due to the fact that we are really extracting co2 from the atmosphere - and it is entirely various between extracting and avoiding."
According to the scientist's computations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide via the planting of trees would be in 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 variety of nations are presently trialling this technology, 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 locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, supplying a financial return.
"Jatropha is perfect to be developed into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this area are not persuaded. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But many of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the excellent, green hope the truth was really various.
"When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she stated.
"But there are often individuals who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - 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 concerns about the fairness of the concept.
"It is still somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn't actually trigger?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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