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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 reporter, BBC News

Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed « carbon farming », scientists say the concept is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics state the idea could be have unpredicted, negative effects consisting of driving up food rates.

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 extremely well adapted to severe conditions consisting of very dry deserts.

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

In this study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha could capture up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

« The outcomes are frustrating, » said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

« There was excellent growth, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning, » he stated.

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

The researchers state that a crucial aspect of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This implies that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.

They are intending to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term solution to environment modification.

« I believe it is an excellent concept because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is completely different between extracting and preventing. »

According to the researcher’s estimations the costs of suppressing co2 by means of the planting of trees would be between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A variety of nations are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel state the researchers, providing an economic return.

« Jatropha is perfect to be become biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel, » said Prof Becker.

But other experts in this area are not convinced. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers 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 coping with dry conditions.

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

« When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land, » she said.

« But there are typically individuals who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as marginal. »

She explained that jatropha is highly toxic 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 somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to deal with a problem these people didn’t actually trigger? »

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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