Desert 'carbon farming' to curb CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Scientists say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers say the idea is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics say the concept could be have unanticipated, negative effects including 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 effectively adapted to severe conditions consisting of incredibly dry deserts.
It is currently grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world since its seeds can produce oil.
In this research study, German researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might record up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their price quotes 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 good growth, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger 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 absorb all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.
The researchers state that a vital element of the strategy would be the availability of desalination facilities. This indicates that initially, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.
They are intending to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short-term service to climate modification.
"I think it is a great idea because we are truly drawing out co2 from the atmosphere - and it is totally different between extracting and preventing."
According to the scientist's calculations the expenses of suppressing co2 by means of 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 presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be gathered for biofuel state the researchers, supplying an economic return.
"Jatropha is ideal to be turned into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this area are not . They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But many of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the great, green hope the reality was extremely various.
"When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she stated.
"But there are often individuals who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we would not class the land as minimal."
She explained that jatropha is extremely 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 handle an issue these individuals didn't in fact trigger?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
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