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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

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By Matt McGrath

Environment correspondent, BBC News

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

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the idea is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics say the concept might be have unforeseen, unfavorable effects including increasing food costs.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is effectively adjusted to extreme conditions including incredibly dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German scientists showed that a person hectare of jatropha could catch approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees presently 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, a great response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the would take in all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The researchers state that a vital component of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This implies 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 plans that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short term solution to environment modification.

“I think it is an excellent concept since we are really extracting co2 from the environment – and it is totally different in between drawing out and preventing.”

According to the researcher’s computations the expenses of suppressing co2 through 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 deployed commercially.

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

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

But other specialists in this area are not encouraged. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But much of these endeavors 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 when seen as the excellent, green hope the reality was extremely various.

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

“But there are typically people who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we would not class the land as marginal.”

She pointed out that jatropha is extremely poisonous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to deal with a problem these individuals didn’t actually cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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

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