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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2
Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective way of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers state the concept is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage jobs.
But critics say the idea might be have unexpected, unfavorable effects consisting of driving up food rates.
The research has been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of change
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from in Central America and is really well adjusted to extreme conditions including extremely arid deserts.
It is already grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world due to the fact that its seeds can .
In this study, German researchers revealed that a person hectare of jatropha might catch as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
“The outcomes are frustrating,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
“There was great growth, a great reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying 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 three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.
The researchers state that a vital element of the strategy would be the availability of desalination facilities. This implies that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.
They are wishing to develop bigger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other plans that simply offset the carbon that individuals produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term solution to environment change.
“I believe it is a great concept due to the fact that we are really drawing out co2 from the atmosphere – and it is entirely various in between drawing out and avoiding.”
According to the scientist’s computations the costs of suppressing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be 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 just absorbs CO2 but has other advantages. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel say the researchers, supplying an economic return.
“Jatropha is perfect to be turned into biokerosene – it is even much better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.
But other specialists in this location are not encouraged. They point to 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 really successful in dealing with dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was as soon as viewed as the fantastic, green hope the reality was extremely various.
“When jatropha was presented it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or minimal 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 minimal.”
She explained that jatropha is highly toxic and can contaminate 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 huge plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t really trigger?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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