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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 say that big numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics say the concept might be have unanticipated, negative impacts including increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is very well adjusted to extreme conditions including incredibly arid 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 scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might catch as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their estimates on trees currently 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 great growth, a great response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much bigger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.

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 element of the plan would be the availability of desalination centers. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be restricted to seaside areas.

They are intending to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short-term solution to climate change.

“I believe it is a good idea since we are really extracting co2 from the environment – and it is entirely different in between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s computations the expenses of suppressing co2 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 currently trialling this innovation, external however it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected 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 persuaded. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in managing dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once viewed as the fantastic, green hope the reality was extremely different.

“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land,” she stated.

“But there are often people who require marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as minimal.”

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

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to deal with a problem these people 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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