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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

reporter, BBC News

Scientists state that planting big numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas might be an effective way of suppressing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, scientists state the concept is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics state the idea might be have unpredicted, unfavorable impacts consisting of increasing food costs.

The research has actually 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 adapted to extreme conditions consisting of exceptionally arid deserts.

It is currently grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world due to the fact that its seeds can produce oil.

In this research study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might catch as much as 25 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their price quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots 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, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue attempting it on a much larger scale, for example 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 vehicles and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists say that an important aspect of the strategy would be the accessibility of desalination facilities. This indicates that at first, any plantations would be confined to seaside areas.

They are wishing to establish larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker states that unlike other plans that simply balance out the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term solution to environment change.

“I believe it is a great idea because we are actually extracting carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is totally different in between extracting and avoiding.”

According to the researcher’s estimations the expenses of suppressing carbon dioxide through the planting of trees would be in between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).

A number of nations are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be released commercially.

Growing jatropha not just absorbs CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert locations more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be collected for biofuel state the researchers, supplying an economic return.

“Jatropha is perfect to be become biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” stated Prof Becker.

But other professionals in this location are not encouraged. They indicate the reality that in 2007 and 2008 big numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially 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 when seen as the excellent, green hope the reality was extremely various.

“When jatropha was presented it was viewed as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she stated.

“But there are typically people who need minimal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as marginal.”

She mentioned that jatropha is extremely poisonous and can contaminate the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the concept.

“It is still someone else’s land. Why enter and grow these massive plantations to handle a problem these individuals didn’t actually cause?”

Follow Matt on Twitter, external.

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Related web links

Universität Hohenheim

European Geosciences Union

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