Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Scientists say that big numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an efficient way of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists state the idea is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage tasks.
But critics state the idea might be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts including increasing food costs.
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 extremely well adjusted to severe conditions including exceptionally 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 researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha could record as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their price quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
"The outcomes are overwhelming," stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
"There was excellent development, a good reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the beginning," he stated.
According to the researchers 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 duration.
The researchers state that a crucial aspect of the strategy would be the availability of desalination centers. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.
They are hoping to establish bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that simply balance out the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha could be a great, short-term solution to climate modification.
"I think it is a great concept since we are really drawing out co2 from the environment - and it is totally various between extracting and preventing."
According to the scientist's calculations the expenses of curbing carbon dioxide 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 countries are currently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not just soaks up CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant's seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the scientists, supplying an economic return.
"Jatropha is perfect to be developed into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.
But other experts in this location are not persuaded. They indicate the reality 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 extremely effective in managing dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She states that while jatropha was once seen as the great, green hope the reality was extremely different.
"When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land," she said.
"But there are typically 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 issues about the fairness of the idea.
"It is still somebody else's land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to deal with an issue these individuals didn't actually trigger?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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