Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2

Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress 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 a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers state the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics say the idea could be have unforeseen, negative impacts consisting of increasing food rates.

The research study has actually been published, 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 including exceptionally dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha could record up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists based their price quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

"The outcomes are overwhelming," stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

"There was excellent development, an excellent action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start," he stated.

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

The scientists say that an important component of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This indicates that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wishing to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, brief term service to environment change.

"I believe it is a good idea because we are really drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment - and it is entirely various between extracting and avoiding."

According to the researcher's computations the costs of curbing co2 by means of the planting of trees would be in 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 nations are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only takes in CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel state the scientists, offering a financial return.

"Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," said Prof Becker.

But other professionals in this location are not convinced. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the fantastic, green hope the reality was very different.

"When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she said.

"But there are typically individuals who require marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we would not class the land as marginal."

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

"It is still somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn't really cause?"

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