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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 reporter, BBC News
Scientists say that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective method of curbing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the concept is economically competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage projects.
But critics state the idea might be have unanticipated, negative effects consisting of driving up food prices.
The research has actually been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of change
Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is really well adjusted to harsh conditions including incredibly dry deserts.
It is already grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world since its seeds can produce oil.
In this research study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might record as much as 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees currently growing in in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
“The outcomes are overwhelming,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
“There was excellent growth, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he stated.
According to the scientists 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 period.
The scientists say that a critical component of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination centers. This means that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.
They are wanting to establish larger trials in desert locations of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that just balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be a good, short-term option to climate modification.
“I believe it is an excellent idea since we are really drawing out co2 from the environment – and it is completely different in between drawing out and avoiding.”
According to the researcher’s computations the expenses of suppressing 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 variety of nations are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other advantages. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel state the researchers, supplying an economic return.
“Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.
But other experts in this area are not convinced. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in handling dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as seen as the excellent, green hope the truth was very various.
“When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she stated.
“But there are frequently individuals who require minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we would not class the land as minimal.”
She explained that jatropha is highly harmful and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had issues about the fairness of the idea.
“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these huge plantations to handle an issue 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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