Desert 'carbon farming' to suppress 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 locations could be an effective way of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed "carbon farming", scientists say the concept is financially competitive with state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage jobs.
But critics state the concept might be have unpredicted, negative effects including increasing food costs.
The research has been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of change
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is effectively adapted to harsh conditions consisting of extremely arid deserts.
It is currently grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world since its seeds can produce oil.
In this study, German researchers showed that one hectare of jatropha might capture as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their quotes on trees currently 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 good growth, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for instance 10 thousand hectares in the start," he said.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.
The researchers say that a vital element of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination centers. This suggests that at first, any plantations would be restricted to coastal locations.
They are wanting to establish 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 option to climate modification.
"I think it is an excellent concept since we are really extracting co2 from the environment - and it is entirely different between extracting and preventing."
According to the researcher's calculations the costs of suppressing co2 through 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 number of nations are presently trialling this technology, external however it has yet to be released commercially.
Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the seeds can be harvested for biofuel state the scientists, providing a financial return.
"Jatropha is perfect to be developed into biokerosene - it is even much better than biodiesel," said Prof Becker.
But other specialists in this location are not convinced. They point to the reality that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, specifically in Africa. But many of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not really effective in managing dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels project supervisor for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the great, green hope the reality was extremely various.
"When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land," she said.
"But there are frequently people who require marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area - we wouldn't class the land as minimal."
She explained that jatropha is highly poisonous 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 go in and grow these huge plantations to deal with a problem these individuals didn't in fact cause?"
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related internet links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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Desert 'carbon Farming' To Curb CO2
terrellhollima edited this page 2025-01-12 01:24:31 +08:00