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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective way of curbing emissions of CO2.

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

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

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is extremely well adapted to harsh conditions including extremely 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 showed that a person hectare of jatropha could record as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The scientists based their price quotes 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 excellent development, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The scientists state that a critical component of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wanting to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short-term solution to climate modification.

“I think it is a good idea due to the fact that we are really drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is completely different in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the researcher’s estimations the costs of suppressing co2 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 variety of countries are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, supplying an economic return.

“Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this location are not encouraged. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a lot of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very 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 reality was really various.

“When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land,” she said.

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

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

“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn’t in fact cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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