Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
Desert 'carbon farming' to curb 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 an effective way of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", researchers state the idea is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage jobs.
But critics state the idea might be have unforeseen, unfavorable effects consisting of driving up food costs.
The research study has been published, external in the System Dynamics.
Seeds of change
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adjusted to severe conditions consisting of extremely 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 revealed that one hectare of jatropha might record up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere 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 frustrating," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was excellent development, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he said.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.
The researchers say that a critical element of the plan would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.
They are intending to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term solution to climate modification.
"I think it is an excellent concept due to the fact that we are truly drawing out co2 from the environment - and it is entirely different between extracting and preventing."
According to the scientist's computations the costs of suppressing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be 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 nations are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be collected for biofuel state the scientists, supplying an economic return.
"Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene - it is even better than biodiesel," said Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this location are not convinced. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers 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 extremely effective in coping with 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 terrific, green hope the truth was extremely different.
"When jatropha was presented it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land," she said.
"But there are frequently people who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location - we wouldn't class the land as limited."
She pointed out that jatropha is highly hazardous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the idea.
"It is still someone else's land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to handle a problem these people didn't really cause?"
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Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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