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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 great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be a reliable way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the idea is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage tasks.

But critics say the concept might be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts including driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is extremely well adapted to extreme conditions consisting of extremely dry 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 might catch up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The scientists based their quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

“The outcomes are overwhelming,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was good growth, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start,” he said.

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

The scientists state that an important element of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This means that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal areas.

They are wanting to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short term service to climate change.

“I think it is an excellent concept because we are actually drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is completely different between drawing out and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s calculations the expenses of curbing co2 via 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 variety of nations are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just takes in CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the scientists, supplying an economic return.

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

But other professionals in this area are not convinced. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But much of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in coping with dry conditions.

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

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

“But there are often individuals who require minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as marginal.”

She pointed out 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 enter and grow these massive plantations to deal with a problem these people didn’t in fact trigger?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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