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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 reporter, BBC News

Scientists state that planting large numbers of in desert areas might be a reliable way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed «carbon farming», researchers say the concept is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics state the concept could be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects consisting of driving up food rates.

The research study has actually been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adapted to harsh conditions including incredibly arid deserts.

It is currently grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world because its seeds can produce oil.

In this study, German researchers revealed that one hectare of jatropha could catch up to 25 tonnes of co2 from the environment every year. The scientists based their price quotes 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 action from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example 10 thousand hectares in the start,» he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.

The researchers state that an important element of the plan would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This implies that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.

They are wanting to establish larger trials in desert areas 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 change.

«I believe it is a great idea since we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is totally different between drawing out and avoiding.»

According to the scientist’s computations the costs of suppressing co2 through the planting of trees would be in 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 number of countries are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not only absorbs CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel state the researchers, offering an economic return.

«Jatropha is perfect to be developed into biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,» said Prof Becker.

But other professionals in this area are not encouraged. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a lot of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really successful in dealing with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the fantastic, green hope the truth was very different.

«When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land,» she said.

«But there are typically people who require limited land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we wouldn’t class the land as limited.»

She pointed out that jatropha is extremely toxic and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the concept.

«It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to deal with an issue these people didn’t really cause?»

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

The BBC is not responsible for the material of external sites.

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