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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 large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an efficient method of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists say the concept is financially competitive with modern carbon capture and storage jobs.

But critics state the concept might be have unpredicted, unfavorable effects including driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is effectively adjusted to extreme conditions consisting of very arid deserts.

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

In this study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might capture approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees presently 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 good growth, a great response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much bigger scale, for instance ten thousand hectares in the start,” 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 automobiles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists say that an important aspect of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to seaside locations.

They are wanting to establish bigger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short term service to environment change.

“I think it is a good idea due to the fact that we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is totally various between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’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 techniques, 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 deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the researchers, supplying a financial return.

“Jatropha is ideal to be become biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.

But other specialists in this location are not encouraged. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But numerous of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in handling dry conditions.

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

“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she said.

“But there are frequently people who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we wouldn’t class the land as marginal.”

She explained that jatropha is highly harmful and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to deal with a problem these people didn’t really trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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