Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2

Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress CO2

1 August 2013

close panel

Copy link

About sharing

By Matt McGrath

Environment reporter, BBC News

Scientists say that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations might be an effective way of curbing 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 say the idea could be have unanticipated, unfavorable impacts consisting of driving up food prices.

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

Seeds of modification

Jatropha curcas is a plant that stemmed in Central America and is extremely well adjusted to harsh conditions consisting of very dry deserts.

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

In this research study, German researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might capture approximately 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 results are overwhelming," stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

"There was good growth, a good action from these plants. I feel there will be no problem attempting it on a much bigger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start," he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by automobiles and trucks in Germany over a twenty years period.

The scientists say that a critical aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.

They are hoping to develop larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short term option to environment modification.

"I think it is a great concept because we are truly extracting co2 from the atmosphere - and it is completely various between drawing out and avoiding."

According to the scientist's computations 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 techniques, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A number of nations are currently trialling this innovation, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

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

"Jatropha is perfect to be turned into biokerosene - it is even better than biodiesel," stated Prof Becker.

But other professionals in this area are not persuaded. They point to the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a number of these ventures ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once viewed as the excellent, green hope the truth was very various.

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

"But there are often people who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we would not class the land as marginal."

She mentioned that jatropha is highly toxic and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

"It is still someone else's land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn't actually cause?"