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 large numbers of jatropha trees in desert locations could be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists say the idea is financially competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics state the idea might be have unforeseen, negative impacts including driving up food rates.
The research study has been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is really well adjusted to extreme conditions including extremely 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 research study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might capture up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment 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," stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was good development, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he said.
According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.
The researchers say that an important element of the plan would be the availability of desalination facilities. This implies that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.
They are intending to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term service to climate modification.
"I believe it is a good idea due to the fact that we are really extracting co2 from the environment - and it is entirely various between drawing out and avoiding."
According to the scientist's computations 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 strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).
A number of nations are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not just takes in 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 scientists, offering a financial return.
"Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this area are not convinced. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But much of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the great, green hope the truth was extremely different.
"When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal land," she stated.
"But there are frequently people who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we wouldn't class the land as minimal."
She pointed out 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 somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these people didn't really trigger?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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