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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 state that big numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an efficient method of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the idea is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.
But critics say the idea could be have unpredicted, negative effects including increasing food rates.
The research has been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of change
Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is extremely well adjusted to harsh conditions including incredibly arid 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 could record up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
“The results are frustrating,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
“There was great development, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.
The researchers state that a critical aspect of the plan would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This implies that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.
They are wishing to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short-term service to climate change.
“I believe it is an excellent idea due to the fact that we are actually drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is entirely various in between drawing out and avoiding.”
According to the scientist’s estimations the expenses of suppressing co2 through the planting of trees would be in 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 number of countries are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the scientists, supplying an economic return.
“Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this location are not convinced. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But many of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once seen as the fantastic, green hope the reality was really various.
“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land,” she said.
“But there are typically individuals who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as limited.”
She mentioned that jatropha is extremely toxic and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had concerns about the fairness of the idea.
“It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to handle an issue these individuals didn’t in fact trigger?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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