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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 great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an efficient way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the concept is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics state the concept might be have unforeseen, negative impacts consisting of 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 in Central America and is extremely well adapted to harsh conditions consisting of exceptionally arid 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 research study, German researchers showed that a person hectare of jatropha could capture as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their quotes on trees presently 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 development, a good 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 beginning,” he said.

According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would soak up all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The researchers say that a crucial element of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This suggests that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are intending to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be a great, short-term option to climate modification.

“I believe it is a great idea since we are actually drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is totally various between extracting and preventing.”

According to the scientist’s computations the costs of suppressing carbon dioxide via 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 countries are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, supplying a financial 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, particularly in Africa. But numerous of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when seen as the terrific, green hope the truth was extremely different.

“When jatropha was presented it was viewed 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 area – we wouldn’t class the land as marginal.”

She mentioned that jatropha is extremely poisonous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t actually cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related internet links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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