Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment reporter, BBC News
Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers say the concept is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage tasks.
But critics state the concept might be have unexpected, unfavorable effects including driving up food costs.
The research study has been published, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is extremely well adjusted to extreme conditions including exceptionally arid 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 researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha might record as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
"The results are overwhelming," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was excellent growth, an excellent reaction 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 stated.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.
The researchers say that a critical aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be restricted to .
They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short term service to environment modification.
"I believe it is an excellent concept since we are actually drawing out co2 from the atmosphere - and it is entirely different between drawing out and preventing."
According to the scientist's estimations the costs of curbing carbon dioxide by means of 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 nations are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel state the scientists, supplying a financial return.
"Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene - it is even better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.
But other experts in this area are not encouraged. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors 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 states that while jatropha was once viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was very various.
"When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land," she stated.
"But there are often individuals who require limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location - we wouldn't class the land as marginal."
She mentioned that jatropha is extremely hazardous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the concept.
"It is still somebody else's land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn't actually cause?"
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Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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