Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2
1 August 2013
Share
close panel
Share page
Copy link
About sharing
By Matt McGrath
Environment reporter, BBC News
Scientists say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective method of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists say the idea is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics say the concept might be have unforeseen, negative impacts including increasing food prices.
The research has actually been published, 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 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 a person hectare of jatropha could capture up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
"The results are overwhelming," said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was excellent growth, a great action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning," he stated.
According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the would soak up all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years duration.
The scientists state that a vital element of the plan would be the availability of desalination facilities. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.
They are intending to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that just balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be an excellent, short term solution to climate change.
"I think it is a good idea due to the fact that we are really drawing out co2 from the atmosphere - and it is entirely different between drawing out and avoiding."
According to the scientist's computations the expenses of suppressing co2 via the planting of trees would be between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other methods, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).
A variety of countries are presently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the scientists, offering an economic return.
"Jatropha is perfect to be become biokerosene - it is even better than biodiesel," said Prof Becker.
But other professionals in this location are not persuaded. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a lot of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not very successful in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was when viewed as the terrific, green hope the reality was really different.
"When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land," she stated.
"But there are frequently people who require marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we would not class the land as limited."
She mentioned that jatropha is extremely hazardous 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 someone else's land. Why go in and grow these huge plantations to handle an issue these people didn't in fact cause?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
More on this story
'Carpets of seaweed' grown for fuel. Video, 00:03:05'Carpets of seaweed' grown for fuel
1 July 2013
Biofuels are 'irrational strategy'
Published
15 April 2013
Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
The BBC is not accountable for the content of external websites.
1
Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
gitapicard5953 edited this page 1 month ago