Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2

1 August 2013

Share

close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists state that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an efficient method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the concept is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics state the concept might be have unforeseen, negative impacts consisting of increasing food costs.

The research has been published, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is very well adapted to severe conditions including exceptionally dry deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha could capture up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

“The outcomes are frustrating,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was good growth, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.

The scientists say that a crucial element of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are wishing to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short-term solution to climate modification.

“I believe it is a good idea because we are actually drawing out co2 from the atmosphere – and it is completely different in between extracting and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s calculations the costs of suppressing carbon dioxide by means of 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 number of countries are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, offering an economic return.

“Jatropha is perfect to be turned into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this location are not encouraged. They indicate the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in handling dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when seen as the excellent, green hope the truth 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 typically individuals who require minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t class the land as minimal.”

She explained that jatropha is extremely poisonous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn’t really trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

More on this story

‘Carpets of seaweed’ grown for fuel. Video, 00:03:05’Carpets of seaweed’ grown for fuel

1 July 2013

Biofuels are ‘illogical method’

Published

15 April 2013

Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.